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 859

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 1882

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
1002	06 November 1882	Charles Jones Jane Barnes	Charles Jones Jane Barnes 💍 1882/3380	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	28 25	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 3 years	The residence of 2.4. Barnes in Short - Oamaru	82/13188		14 November 1882	Revd John Fothergill, Congregationalist
1003	23 November 1882	James Thompson Mary Ann Billingham	James Thompson Mary Ann Billingham 💍 1882/2856	Bachelor Spinster	Freeman (Railway)	25 20	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 20 years	St Luke's Church	82/13141	John Billingham, Father	23 November 1882	Revd Algernon Gifford, Church of England
1004	27 November 1882	John Duncan Bowie Mary In Peat	John Duncan Bowie Mary McPeatt 💍 1882/3394	Bachelor Spinster	Postmaker Servant	20 21	Oamaru Oamaru	5 months 3 months	St Paul's Church	82/13178	John Bowie, Father	29 November 1882	Revd A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1005	01 December 1882	Matthew Barr Refannet Anne Elizabeth Hoskins		Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Gentlewoman	31 22	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 1 year	At the residence of Two Spain - Little Sheet - Oamaru	82/13172		04 December 1882	Revd Algernon Gifford, Church of England
1006	04 December 1882	John Logie Emily Long	John Logie Emily Long 💍 1882/3395	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Cleaner	22 21	Oamaru Oamaru	10 months 3 days	The residence of The Thomas Davison, South Oamaru	82/13179		04 December 1882	Revd A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1007	08 December 1882	Charles Edward Jeffery Margaret Roche	Charles Edward Jeffery Margaret Roche 💍 1882/3376	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	26 18	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 8 years	The residence of the Reverend William Coleman - Oamaru	82/13174	William Roche, Father	08 December 1882	Revd William Coleman, Roman Catholic
1008	21 December 1882	Samuel Bullen Jane Danfe	Samuel Bullen Jane Waugh 💍 1882/3396	Bachelor Widow	Miner Nurse	49 39	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 years	The residence of Mrs. Saugh in Tweed	82/13180		21 December 1882	Revd A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1009	23 December 1882	Robert Mattisson Susan White	Robert Mathieson Susan White 💍 1882/3374	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	30 27	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 6 years	The residence of Mrs. William White, Dambeck Sheet Oamaru	82/13181		23 December 1882	Revd A. B. Todd, Presbyterian

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).