Intentions to Marry, 1885

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840397, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 414

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1885

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
1188	4 May 1885	Thomas Jackman Annie Fox	Thomas Jackman Annie Fox 💍 1885/1643	Bachelor Spinster	Coal-porter Servant	25 20	Reidston Reidston	7 years 3 months	St Paul's Church, Oamaru	85/1712		4 May 1885	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1189	6 May 1885	John King Bridget Bermingham	John King Bridget Benningham 💍 1885/1655	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 28	Oamaru Oamaru	5 days 3 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	85/1714		6 May 1885	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1190	12 May 1885	James Grey Wilson Matilda Kinkaid	James Lucy Wilson Matilda Kinkaid 💍 1885/1666	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	36 31	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 7 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	85/1718		12 May 1885	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1191	13 May 1885	John Lynch Margaret Roche	John Lynch Margaret Roche 💍 1885/1633	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Servant	34 28	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 6 years	St Patrick's Church, Oamaru	85/1700		13 May 1885	Very Revd. William Coleman, Roman Catholic
1192	16 May 1885	Thomas Brookes Mary O'Brien	Thomas Brookes Mary O'Brien 💍 1885/1673 Henry Thomas Russell Mary O'Brien 💍 1886/469	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Tailoress	29 19	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 4 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	85/1719	Ellen Corrigan, Mother	16 May 1885	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1193	18 May 1885	Robert Mahan Mary Ann Sidon	Robert Mahan Mary Ann Sidon 💍 1885/1644	Bachelor Spinster	Butchers Machinist Dressmaker	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 21 years	The house of Mr. Henry Sidon, Torridge Street, Oamaru	85/1713		18 May 1885	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1194	18 May 1885	Martin King Helen Courtney	Martin King Helen Courtney 💍 1885/1636	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet-maker Servant	23 18	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 2 years	The house of Mr. James Wilson, Nile Street, Oamaru	85/1706	No person in the Colony to give consent	2 June 1885	Revd. James Macgregor S.D., Presbyterian
1195	20 May 1885	Edwin Leamey Catherine Bentley	Edwin Leaney Catherine Bentley 💍 1885/1635	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	29 23	Oamaru Oamaru	10 years 23 years	The house of Mr. Charles Bentley, Humber Street, Oamaru	85/1705		20 May 1885	Revd. Hugh S. Rishworth, Wesleyan

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).