Intentions to Marry, 1882

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840394, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 850

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1882 Registrar Joseph Leash Sait

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
939	05 January 1882	Walter Williamson Marion Cunningham	Walter Williamson Marion Cunninghame 💍 1882/666	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 1/2 years 3 1/2 years	Wesley Church	82/1644		05 January 1882	John Kemp Wesley Minister
940	05 January 1882	Edward Poole Mary Hartford	Edward Poole Mary Hartford 💍 1882/1714	Widower Spinster	Horse-driver	35 21	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 4 months	St Luke's Church	82/1495		07 January 1882	Algernon Gifford Church of England Minister
941	09 January 1882	George Batty Sarah Booker	George Batty Sarah Booker 💍 1882/664	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	St Luke's Church	82/1644		09 January 1882	Algernon Gifford Church of England Minister
942	10 January 1882	James Tait Mary Jane Hunter	James Tait Mary Jane Hunter 💍 1882/3607	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 19	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 2 1/2 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	82/1646	Mary Langdon Mother	10 January 1882	William Gabriel Filleul Registrar
943	16 January 1882	William Darragh Mary Agnes Black	William Darragh Mary Agnes Black 💍 1882/665	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	32 30	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 5 years	St Luke's Church Oamaru	82/1645		16 January 1882	Algernon Gifford Church of England Minister
944	17 January 1882	William Houston Letitia Henrietta Taggart		Bachelor Spinster	Quarryman	30 20	Weston Weston	3 years 3 years	The Residence of William Houston in Oamaru	82/1648		17 January 1882	James Glover Primitive Methodist Minister
945	26 January 1882	Samuel Thomas Broosh Margaret Dillon	Samuel Thomas Crook Margaret Dillon 💍 1882/965	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	21 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 8 months	The Residence of the bridegroom in North School	82/1655		26 January 1882	Alexander Bruce Todd Presbyterian Minister
946	30 January 1882	Albert Isaac Garland Margaret Jane Hassell	Albert Isaac Garland Margaret Jane Hassell 💍 1882/974	Widower Spinster	Physician & Surgeon	36 14	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 15 months	The Residence of James Clark Hassell in Oamaru	82/1656	J. L. Hassell Father	30 January 1882	John Foster Congregationalist Minister

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1899. 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).