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 857

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 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
1054	3 July 1883	Alexander Don Sarah McDonald	Alexander Don Sarah McDonald 💍 1883/2409	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 24	Black Point Georgetown	3 weeks 20 years	The residence of Mr. Angus McDonald	83/2321		3 July 1883	Revd. John Steven, Presbyterian Minister
1055	10 July 1883	Henry Fowler Julia Luddy	Henry Fowler Julia Luddy 💍 1883/2410	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	27 21	Pukeuri Pukeuri	10 years 3 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	83/2331		10 July 1883	The Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru
1056	16 July 1883	William Fletcher Elizabeth McCormick	William Fletcher Elizabeth McCormack 💍 1883/2418	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 25	Kakanui North Kakanui North	4 years 3 years	St. Luke's Church, Oamaru	83/2339		16 July 1883	Revd. Algernon Gifford, Church of England
1057	23 July 1883	James Ogilvie Mary Kirkwood	James Ogilvie Mary Kirkwood 💍 1883/2432	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	25 19	Oamaru Oamaru	7 months 2 years	The residence of Mr. David Kirkwood, Hull Street, Oamaru	83/2330	David Kirkwood, Father	23 July 1883	Revd. John Foster, Congregationalist
1058	25 July 1883	James Foddie Mary Ann Redmond	James Foddie Mary Ann Redmond 💍 1883/2428	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 22	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 4 years	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru	83/2323		25 July 1883	Revd. D. S. Coleman, Roman Catholic
1059	30 July 1883	John Tausey Ellen Keating	John Tansey Ellen Keating 💍 1883/2429	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 23	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 2 years	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru	83/2324		30 July 1883	Revd. D. S. Coleman, Roman Catholic
1060	30 July 1883	John Cummer Margaret Glen	John Cumner Margaret Glen 💍 1883/2419 George McMorran Margaret Glen 💍 1883/1331	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Nursemaid	49 42	Taipo Hill Taipo Hill	3 1/2 years 7 months	St. Luke's Church, Oamaru	83/2340		30 July 1883	Revd. Algernon Gifford, Church of England
1061	31 July 1883	William Longman Angus Catherine Curran	William Longman Angus Catherine Curran 💍 1883/2430	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 19	Oamaru Oamaru	2 weeks 5 weeks	The residence of the Revd. William Coleman, Oamaru	83/2327	Bridget Curran, Mother	31 July 1883	Revd. D. S. 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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).