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 417

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 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
1167	5 January 1885	Thomas Jones Eliza Jane Harvey	Thomas James Gullery Mary Jane Harvey 💍 1885/3148	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 22	Oamaru Oamaru	9 years 9 years	The house of Mr. James Porteous, Tonidge Street, Oamaru	85/411		5 January 1885	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1168	8 January 1885	Robert Johnston Catherine McKelvie	Robert Johnston Catherine McKelvie 💍 1885/724	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	41 21	Awamoa Oamaru	17 years 3 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	85/404		8 January 1885	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1169	10 January 1885	John Smith Margaret Lyall	John Smith Margaret Lyall 💍 1885/723	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Servant	36 24	Enfield Enfield	8 years 4 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	85/403		10 January 1885	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1170	21 January 1885	Thomas Henderson Janet Muir	Thomas Henderson Janet Muir 💍 1885/725	Bachelor Spinster	Coal-miner Servant	24 18	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 1 month	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	85/405	Robert Muir, Father	21 January 1885	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1171	28 January 1885	Charles Sutton Elizabeth Morton	Charles Sutton Elizabeth Moreton 💍 1885/726	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	33 33	Whitstone Whitstone	10 years 12 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	85/406		28 January 1885	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1172	29 January 1885	John McLeod Lucy Daly	John McLeod Lucy Daly 💍 1885/755	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Dressmaker	22 21	Oamaru Oamaru	12 years 13 months	The house of Mr. Samuel Crook, Mersey Street, Oamaru	85/412		29 January 1885	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1173	6 February 1885	James Charlesworth Selina Abbott	James Charlesworth Selina Abbott 💍 1885/756	Bachelor Spinster	Wool-sorter Servant	29 26	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 18 months	St. Paul's Church Manse, Oamaru	85/413		6 February 1885	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1174	10 February 1885	Ebenezer Piper Amelia Headland	Ebenezer Piper Amelia Headland 💍 1885/721	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	29 27	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 20 years	St. Luke's Church, Oamaru	85/402		10 February 1885	Rev. Algernon Gifford, Church of England

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).