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 407

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 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	Officiating Minister
1223	6 October 1885	Robert Challen Street Cecilia Stewart Dennison	Robert Challen Skeet Cecilia Stewart Dennison 💍 1885/3465	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	27 26	Oamaru Oamaru	2 1/2 years 4 years	St Paul's Church	85/3534	Rev. A. B. Todd
1224	22 October 1885	Alexander Clarke Isabella Young Main	Alexander Clarke Isabella Young Main 💍 1885/3467	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	30 21	Oamaru Oamaru District	3 years 7 years	The house of John Main, Limareta Junction	85/3539	Rev. A. B. Todd
1225	26 October 1885	George Youngson Marion Smith	George Youngson Marion Smith 💍 1885/3466 George McClure Maria Smith 💍 1885/2853 George Offwood Mary Ann Smith 💍 1886/728	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant Servant	34 21	Ngapara Oamaru	1 year 2 months	The house of Mr. Dive Street, Oamaru	85/3538	Rev. A. B. Todd
1226	31 October 1885	John Forrester Louisa Frederica Misle	John Forrester Lucie Dorothea Frederica Thiele 💍 1885/3446	Widower Spinster	Farmer	37 21	Papakaio Papakaio	7 years 3 years	The house of Mr. F. Misle, Papakaio	85/3533	Rev. John Steven
1227	4 November 1885	Herbert Lee Isabel Crombie	Herbert Lee Isabel Crombie 💍 1885/3448	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 23	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 11 months	St Luke's Church	85/3543	Rev. Algernon Gifford
1228	4 November 1885	William Home Latson Mary Ann Wilkinson	William Moon Watson Mary Ann Finlinson 💍 1885/3463	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Milliner	24 23	Kakami Reidston	12 years 15 years	The house of Mr. H. Wilkinson, Reidston	85/3535	Rev. George Lindsay
1229	4 November 1885	Edwin William Hardy Anna Elizabeth Erentz	Edwin William Hardy Anna Elizabeth Erentz 💍 1885/3468	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 24	Oamaru Oamaru	10 years 9 months	St Paul's Church, Oamaru	85/3540	Rev. A. B. Todd
1230	16 November 1885	Edwin James de Grove Susan Jennings	Edwin James Le Grove Susan Jennings 💍 1885/3449	Widower Widow	Journalist	33 30	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 9 years	The house of Mr. George Thompson, Dee Street, Oamaru	85/3544	Rev. John S. Rishworth

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).