Intentions to Marry, 1880

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840392, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 790

District of Oamaru Quarter ending Jan - Mar

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

798

5 January 1880

John Corrigall
Mary Ann Taylor

John Corrigall
Margaret Ann Taylor
💍 1880/900

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Housekeeper

30
26

Oamaru
Oamaru

5 days
3 days

The Manse

80/1/64

5 January 1880

Rev. A. B. Todd

No	798
Date of Notice	5 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Corrigall	Mary Ann Taylor
BDM Match (87%)	John Corrigall	Margaret Ann Taylor
	💍 1880/900
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Housekeeper
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	5 days	3 days
Marriage Place	The Manse
Folio	80/1/64
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Todd

799

9 January 1880

John Dalgleish
Lorimer Smith

John Dalgliesh
Lavinia Smith
💍 1880/883

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
22

Papakaio
Papakaio

12 years
5 years

The residence of Mr John Smith Papakaio

80/1/71

9 January 1880

Rev. John Steven

No	799
Date of Notice	9 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Dalgleish	Lorimer Smith
BDM Match (74%)	John Dalgliesh	Lavinia Smith
	💍 1880/883
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Papakaio	Papakaio
Length of Residence	12 years	5 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Mr John Smith Papakaio
Folio	80/1/71
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Steven

800

13 January 1880

William Manning
Honora Whelan

William Manning
Hanora Whelan
💍 1880/895

Widower
Spinster

Housekeeper
Servant

42
23

Kakanui North
Kakanui North

4 years
1 year

The residence of the Revd. William Coleman, Oamaru

80/1/59

13 January 1880

Rev. William Coleman

No	800
Date of Notice	13 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Manning	Honora Whelan
BDM Match (96%)	William Manning	Hanora Whelan
	💍 1880/895
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Housekeeper	Servant
Age	42	23
Dwelling Place	Kakanui North	Kakanui North
Length of Residence	4 years	1 year
Marriage Place	The residence of the Revd. William Coleman, Oamaru
Folio	80/1/59
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Coleman

801

26 January 1880

William Kilmartin
Margaret Griffen

William Kilmartin
Margaret Griffin
💍 1880/896

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
23

Oamaru
Oamaru

4 years
1 year

St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru

80/1/60

26 January 1880

Rev. William Coleman

No	801
Date of Notice	26 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Kilmartin	Margaret Griffen
BDM Match (97%)	William Kilmartin	Margaret Griffin
	💍 1880/896
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	4 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru
Folio	80/1/60
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Coleman

802

5 February 1880

Alexander McLay
Elizabeth Jane Angus

Alexander McKay
Elizabeth Jane Angus
💍 1880/880

Bachelor
Spinster

24
28

Oamaru

5 years

The residence of Mr James Angus in Ribble Street, Oamaru

80/1/40

5 February 1880

Rev. A. B. Todd

No	802
Date of Notice	5 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander McLay	Elizabeth Jane Angus
BDM Match (97%)	Alexander McKay	Elizabeth Jane Angus
	💍 1880/880
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession
Age	24	28
Dwelling Place		Oamaru
Length of Residence		5 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Mr James Angus in Ribble Street, Oamaru
Folio	80/1/40
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Todd

803

6 February 1880

Edward Alfred Attemson
Pattie Lileth Lambert

Edward Alfred Atkinson
Pattie Chilcott Lambert
💍 1880/898

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

25
21

Oamaru
Oamaru

4 years
2 years

St. Luke's Church Oamaru

80/1/62

6 February 1880

Rev. Algernon Gifford

No	803
Date of Notice	6 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Alfred Attemson	Pattie Lileth Lambert
BDM Match (82%)	Edward Alfred Atkinson	Pattie Chilcott Lambert
	💍 1880/898
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church Oamaru
Folio	80/1/62
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Algernon Gifford

804

9 February 1880

Charles Hughes
Ellen Bridgeman

Charles Hughes
Ellen Bridgeman
💍 1880/897

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Servant

27
22

Oamaru
Oamaru

6 months
1 year

St. Patricks Church Oamaru

80/1/61

9 February 1880

Rev. William Coleman

No	804
Date of Notice	9 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Hughes	Ellen Bridgeman
	💍 1880/897
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Servant
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	6 months	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Patricks Church Oamaru
Folio	80/1/61
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Coleman

805

18 February 1880

William Henry Cottrell
Ellen Jane Spence

William H Cottrell
Ellen Jane Spence
💍 1880/631

Bachelor
Spinster

Stationer

26
20

Oamaru
Oamaru

4 years
12 years

The residence of W. J. G. Spence Greta Street, Oamaru

80/1/70

W. J. G. Spence, father

18 February 1880

Rev. A. B. Todd

No	805
Date of Notice	18 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Cottrell	Ellen Jane Spence
BDM Match (91%)	William H Cottrell	Ellen Jane Spence
	💍 1880/631
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stationer
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	4 years	12 years
Marriage Place	The residence of W. J. G. Spence Greta Street, Oamaru
Folio	80/1/70
Consent	W. J. G. Spence, father
Date of Certificate	18 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Todd

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).