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 793

District of Oamaru Quarter ending Apr - Jun

No	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
821	15 May 1880	Robert Gray Margaret Smith	Robert Gray Margaret Smith 💍 1880/2164	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Servant	25 20	Oamaru Oamaru	1 year 18 months	The Manse Oamaru	80/1164	James Smith Father	17 May 1880	Rev. A. B. Todd Presbyterian
822	25 May 1880	Georg Atkinson Phoebe Lucille Estelle Lloyd	George Aetchison Phoebe L E Alice Lloyd 💍 1880/2165	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	42 21	Awamoko Awamoko	15 years 6 months	The Manse Oamaru	80/1268		25 May 1880	Rev. A. B. Todd Presbyterian
823	15 May 1880	William Craig Ellen Holmes	William Craig Ellen Holmes 💍 1880/2149	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 18	Awamoko Richmond	11 years 6 years	The residence of Mr Samuel Holmes Richmond	80/1216	Samuel Holmes Father	25 May 1880	Rev. John Steven Presbyterian
824	26 May 1880	John Hawstin Wheeler Mary Rowena With Price	John Hawkin Wheeler Mary Rowena Firth Price 💍 1880/2152	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	24 19	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 11 months	St Luke's Church	80/1279	William Henry Price Father	26 May 1880	Rev. Algernon Gifford Church of England
825	28 May 1880	John Holmes Elizabeth Mary Baird	John Holmes Elizabeth Mary Baird 💍 1880/2153	Bachelor Spinster	Houseman Housemaid	25 21	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 18 years	St Lukes Church	80/1250		28 May 1880	Rev. Algernon Gifford Church of England
826	2 June 1880	John Wilson Elizabeth Kirkland	John Wilson Elizabeth Sutherland 💍 1880/2166 John Wilson Ellen Clarke 💍 1880/206	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Housemaid	24 22	Oamaru Oamaru	9 weeks 5 months	The Manse	80/1269		2 June 1880	Rev. A. B. Todd Presbyterian
827	2 June 1880	John McFadgen Ellen Atkinson	John McFadgen Ellen Aitkinson 💍 1880/2167	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Laborer Farm Servant	25 22	Oamaru Oamaru	9 years 2 years	The Manse	80/1270		2 June 1880	Rev. A. B. Todd Presbyterian
828	10 June 1880	Michael Joyce Mary Casey	Michael Joyce Mary Casey 💍 1880/2147	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	25 22	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 4 years	Catholic Church	80/1274		10 June 1880	Rev. William Coleman Roman Catholic

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).