Intentions to Marry, 1884

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840396, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 315

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 1884

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
1149	11 October 1884	Hugh McKay Mary Pindergast	Hugh McKay Mary Pinderjast 💍 1884/1682	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	21 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	84/3446		11 October 1884	The Registrar of Marriages Oamaru
1150	15 October 1884	James Robb Barbara Porteous	James Webb Barbara Porteous 💍 1884/1699	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 20	Oamaru South Oamaru	6 years 1 year	The residence of Mrs Porteous South Oamaru	84/3440	Barbara Porteous mother	15 October 1884	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1151	18 October 1884	William Stewart Martha Linehan	William Stewart Martha Lenihan 💍 1884/1696 William Stewart Mary Pollock 💍 1884/216	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	28 26	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 6 years	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	84/3437		18 October 1884	Revd William Burke Roman Catholic
1152	20 October 1884	Henry Francis Singleton Bertha Bicknell	Henry Francis Singleton Bertha Bicknell 💍 1884/1635	Bachelor Spinster	Registrar of Probates - Victoria	41 24	Oamaru Oamaru	6 weeks 17 years	St Luke's Church Oamaru	84/3549		20 October 1884	Revd Algernon Gifford Church of England
1153	25 October 1884	Thomas Ackley Trepenger Janet Stuart Barr	Thomas Arkley Messenger Janet Stewart Barr 💍 1884/1678	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Fireman Servant	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	13 years 12 months	The residence of Mr John Shanks Number Street Oamaru	84/3434		25 October 1884	Revd John Shiers Rishworth Wesleyan
1154	11 November 1884	James Symons Elsie Ballantyne	James Symon Elsie Ballantyne 💍 1884/3590	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	26 24	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 1 month	The residence of Mr Alexander McDonald Tokarahi Road	84/3574		11 November 1884	Revd James Macgregor D. D. Presbyterian
1155	17 November 1884	Samuel Harwood Marion Jane Oswald	Samuel Harwood Marian Jane Oswald 💍 1884/3675	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Tailoress	23 25	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 2 years	The residence of Mr Charles Henry Lennard Pare Street Oamaru	84/3433		17 November 1884	Revd Thomas Sadler Primitive Methodist
1156	20 November 1884	Andrew Scoular Catherine Hogg Sandilands	Andrew Scoular Catherine Hogg Sandilands 💍 1884/1700	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Servant	25 22	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 3 years	The residence of her Said Sandilands Keet Street Oamaru	84/3441		20 November 1884	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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).