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 851

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1882 Registrar J.K. Lait

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
947	3 February 1882	Michael Hanley Jane Bermingham	Michael Hanley Jane Birmingham 💍 1882/672	Widower Widow	Groom	40 30	Oamaru Oamaru	19 years 1 year	St Patricks Church Oamaru	82/652		3 February 1882	William Coleman Roman Catholic Minister
948	11 February 1882	William Borrie Mary Ann Lewis	William Downie Mary Ann Lewis 💍 1882/668	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	26 20	Weston Whitstone	4 years 2 months	The Residence of Charles Lewis Whitstone	82/649	Charles Lewis Father	11 February	James Glover Primitive Methodist Minister
949	14 February	William Myatt Fanny Paisley	William Myall Fanny Paisley 💍 1882/972	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 21	Oamaru Oamaru	14 days 12 months	The Residence of Miss Farmer Paisley Ribble Street Oamaru	82/656		14 February	Alexander Bruce Todd Presbyterian Minister
950	16 February	Thomas McConnell Mary Madden	Thomas McConnell Mary Madden 💍 1882/673	Widower Spinster	Booth Servant	62 21	Oamaru Oamaru	12 days 14 months	The Residence of Robert William Coleman Oamaru	82/653		16 February	William Coleman Roman Catholic Minister Presbyterian Minister
951	22 February	Nevillie Chamberlain Janet Miller Forrester	Henry Nevellie Chamberlain Janet Miller Forrester 💍 1882/670	Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	25 25	Weston Weston	7 days 14 months	The Residence of William Forrester at Weston	82/650		22 February	James M. Cameron Presbyterian Minister
952	28 February	John Ross Christina McKenzie	John Ross Christina McKenzie 💍 1882/975	Bachelor Spinster	Stonemason Servant	33 31	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 6 years	The Residence of the Bridegroom Tyne Street, Oamaru	82/659		28 February	John Foster Congregationalist Minister
953	6 March	John Murray Annie Murray	John Murray Annie Murray 💍 1882/671	Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	35 25	Geaneraki Geaneraki	2 years 2 months	The Manse Waiarika	82/657		6 March	James M. Cameron Presbyterian Minister
954	8 March	Henry Sinclair Kate Brockett	Henry Sinclair Kate Crockett 💍 1882/973	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	25 21	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 17 years	The Residence of George Crockett Reed Street Oamaru	82/654		8 March	Alexander Bruce Todd Presbyterian Minister

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).