Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 855

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1883

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
1040	22 May 1883	James Sweeney Mary Haggerty	James Sweeney Mary Haggerty 💍 1883/1408	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 22	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 6 years	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	83/1440		22 May 1883	Revd William Coleman Roman Catholic
1041	22 May 1883	James McClare Ellen Little	James McClure Ellen Little 💍 1883/1340	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	25 19	South Oamaru South Oamaru	6 months 6 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	83/1451	Holly J. Little mother	23 May 1883	The Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru
1042	23 May 1883	Peter Rogan Kate Early	Peter Rogan Kate Early 💍 1883/1409	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Housemaid	28 22	Oamaru Oamaru	6 weeks 6 weeks	Queen's Hotel Oamaru	83/1441		23 May 1883	Revd William Coleman Roman Catholic
1043	23 May 1883	Richard Penfold Julia Mary Barnes	Richard Penfold Julia Mary Barnes 💍 1883/1348	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	32 24	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 2 years	The residence of Mr. J. H. Barnes, Dee Street, Oamaru	83/1458		23 May 1883	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1044	28 May 1883	Dudley John Sanders Agnes Orr Donaldson	Dudley John Sanders Agnes Orr Donaldson 💍 1883/1349	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	24 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	St Paul's Church Oamaru	83/1459		28 May 1883	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1045	29 May 1883	Richard Cleave Isabel Drake	Richard Cleave Isabel Drake 💍 1883/1385	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	26 26	Ngapara Ngapara	5 years 2 years	The Manse Papakaio	83/1463		29 May 1883	Revd John Steven Presbyterian
1046	30 May 1883	William Ross Marian Kennedy	William Ross Marian Kennedy 💍 1883/1350 William Sey Mary Kennedy 💍 1883/3549	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	37 37	Oamaru Oamaru	14 days 7 weeks	St Paul's Church Oamaru	83/1460		30 May 1883	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1047	6 June 1883	Patrick O'Grady Mary Glasford	Patrick OGrady Mary Glassad 💍 1883/1407	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	21 20	Alma Alma	4 years 2 years	The residence of Mr. Michael Glasford, Alma	83/1467	Michael Glasford father	6 June 1883	Revd William Coleman Roman Catholic

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).