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 857

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 1882 Registrar W. F. Gilling

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
987	04 September 1882	James Inlay Christina Ninnes	James Finlay Christina Nimmo 💍 1882/2288	Bachelor Spinster	Coal miner Servant	21 21	Oamaru Oamaru	8 days 6 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	82/2324		04 September 1882	The Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru
988	04 September 1882	John Smith Annie Riordan	John Smith Annie Riordan 💍 1882/2286	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	36 23	Papakaio Oamaru	13 years 7 years	The residence of Mr John Smith at Papakaio	82/2325		06 September 1882	Rev. John Stevens
989	13 September 1882	Patrick Gilleran Ellen Whelan	Patrick Gilleran Ellen Whelan 💍 1882/2307	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	36 25	Alma White Rocks	3 years 5 years	St Patrick's Church, Oamaru	82/2322		13 September 1882	Rev. William Coleman
990	14 September 1882	Samuel Dickson Catherine Greenfield	Samuel Dickson Caterinia Greenfield 💍 1882/2639	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	Oamaru South Oamaru	7 years 16 years	The residence of Mr Samuel Dickson, Oamaru	82/2506		14 September 1882	Rev. A. B. Todd
991	19 September 1882	William Stewart Martin Janet Scott	William Stewart Martin Janet Scott 💍 1882/2640	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	25 22	Elderslie Oamaru	4 weeks 5 months	The residence of Mr James Munro, Mersey Street, Oamaru	82/2507		19 September 1882	Rev. A. B. Todd
992	23 September 1882	Edward Cartwright Mary Ann Matthews	Edward Cartwright Mary Ann Matthews 💍 1882/2292	Widower Spinster	Labourer	34 17	Papakaio Hampden	5 years	The residence of Mr John Matthews, Hampden	82/2331		23 September 1882	Rev. Thomas Francis Dodd
993	27 September 1882	Arthur William Phipps Wilhelmina Bardine King	Arthur William Phipps Wilhelmina Caroline King 💍 1882/3390	Bachelor Spinster	Stoker Servant	33 19	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 6 years	The residence of Mr Frederick Phipps in Wharf Street, Oamaru	82/3114	Frederick William King, Father	27 September 1882	Rev. John Crump

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).