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 868

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 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
1084	8 November 1883	Thomas Stewart Amelia Hamilton	Thomas Stewart Amelia Hamilton 💍 1883/3505	Bachelor Spinster	Waggoner Dressmaker	28 21	Oamaru Oamaru	9 years 20 years	The residence of Mr. John Hamilton, Oamaru	83/13289		8 November 1883	Revd. James Macgregor D.D. Presbyterian
1085	12 November 1883	John Derragh Hunter Catherine Maloney	John Deragh Hunter Catherine Mahoney 💍 1883/3520	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Tailoress	26 21	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 12 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	83/13281		12 November 1883	Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1086	23 November 1883	John Sparks Margaret Dickson	John Sparks Margaret Dickson 💍 1883/3506	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 25	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 5 years	Columba Church, Oamaru	83/13290		23 November 1883	Revd. James Macgregor D.D. Presbyterian
1087	30 November 1883	Thomas Fow Annie Lewisley Wilson	Thomas Fou Annie Lievesly Wilson 💍 1883/3417	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 18	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 10 years	The residence of Mr. S. J. Benton, New Street, Oamaru	83/13274	Charles Benton, Father	30 November 1883	Revd. Thomas Sadler, Primitive Methodist
1088	3 December 1883	John Dick Sarah Reynolds	John Dick Sarah Reynolds 💍 1883/3414	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 24	Alma Oamaru	1 year 2 months	The residence of Mr. John Meyers, Short Street, Oamaru	83/13274		3 December 1883	Revd. A. Todd, Presbyterian
1089	4 December 1883	James Gray Jessie Gray	James Craig Jessie Gray 💍 1883/3521	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 21	Hilderthorpe Pukeuri	8 years 21 years	The residence of Mr. William Gray, Pukeuri	83/13282		4 December 1883	Revd. John Steven, Presbyterian
1090	17 December 1883	John McKay Betsey Begg	John McKay Betsy Begg 💍 1883/3415	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant Housekeeper	28 32	Papakaio Boundary Creek	10 years 6 years	St. Paul's Church, Oamaru	83/13275		17 December 1883	Revd. R. N. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1091	21 December 1883	Louis Peter Christeson Eveline Mary Stephens	Louis Peter Christenson Eveline Mary Stephens 💍 1883/3523	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	22 17	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 9 years	The residence of Mr. Thomas Stephens, Alma Street, Oamaru	83/13284	Thomas Stephens, Father	21 December 1883	Revd. Thomas Sadler, Primitive Methodist

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).