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 854

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1882 Registrar [illegible]

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
971	06 June 1882	Peter Wilson Ellen Aulderton	Peter Wilson Ellen Aulderton 💍 1882/1702	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	29 18	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 2 years	The residence of Isaac Buckley, Trent Street, Oamaru	82/1506	Isaac Buckley, Stepfather	06 June 1882	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
972	06 June 1882	Godfrey Reece Gould Eliza Brookes	Godfrey Reece Gould Eliza Brooks 💍 1882/1703	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 24	Oamaru Oamaru	5 months 14 days	The residence of Thomas Austin, Test Street, Oamaru	82/1507		06 June 1882	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
973	07 June 1882	Valentine Wm Humphris Jessie Jack Rodger	Valentine John Humphries Jessie Jack Rodgers 💍 1882/1705	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 25	Papakaro Oamaru	6 months 2 years	The residence of Alexander Campbell, Ouse Street, Oamaru	82/1509		07 June 1882	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
974	07 June 1882	Michael Malone Margaret Havey	Michael Kennelly Margaret Mahoney 💍 1882/812 Michael Gallery Margaret Dean 💍 1882/1819 Michael Duggan Margaret Boyle 💍 1882/1882	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 23	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 5 years	St Patrick's Church, Oamaru	82/1431		07 June 1882	Rev. D. Coleman, Roman Catholic
975	08 June 1882	Aaron M Corkindale Mary Anne Moxham	Aaron McCorkindale Mary Ann Moxham 💍 1882/1704	Bachelor Spinster	Stoker	23 24	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 9 years	The residence of Wm Moxham, Tees Street, Oamaru	82/1508		08 June 1882	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
976	12 June 1882	John Blyth Bridget O'Connor	John Blyth Bridget O'Connor 💍 1882/1896 John Cameron Bridget O'Connor 💍 1882/2599 John Burrows Margaret O'Connor 💍 1882/257	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 18	Oamaru Oamaru	10 months 7 years	The Residence of the Rev. William Coleman, Reed Street, Oamaru	82/1432	Sabina O'Connor, Mother	12 June 1882	Rev. D. Coleman, Roman Catholic
977	15 June 1882	John Horrigan Jane O'Keife	John Horrigan Jane Nisbet 💍 1882/1706	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	47 40	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 6 years	St Paul's Church, Manse, Oamaru	82/1570		13 June 1882	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
978	27 June 1882	James Strongman Agnes F. Williamson	James Strongman Agnes Williamson 💍 1882/1718 James Christmas Fanny Williamson 💍 1882/1625	Bachelor Spinster	Stonemason Dressmaker	35 30	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	82/1499		27 June 1882	The Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru

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

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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).