Intentions to Marry, 1886

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840398, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 273

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1886

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
1240	4 January 1886	Andrew Fuller Carey Leila Gangeeg	Andrew Fuller Carey Leila Cargeeg 💍 1886/816	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Saleswoman	22 19	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 10 years	Wesley Church, Oamaru	86/681	William Gangeeg, Father	4 January 1886	Revd John S. Rishworth, Wesleyan
1241	4 January 1886	John Williams Elizabeth Burton	John Williams Elizabeth Bufton 💍 1886/796	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	31 28	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 5 weeks	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	86/674		4 January 1886	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1242	5 January 1886	Robert March Harding Isabella Bell Buist	Robert March Harding Isabella Bell Buist 💍 1886/786	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker Servant	30 22	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 2 1/2 years	The house of Mr David Buist, Arun Street, Oamaru	86/673		5 January 1886	Revd A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1243	27 January 1886	William Albert Land Annie Boddy	William Albert Ward Annie Boddy 💍 1886/807	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	24 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 18 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	86/677		27 January 1886	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1244	10 February 1886	John Harvey Mary Graham	John Harvey Mary Graham 💍 1886/813	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 22	Cave Valley Cave Valley	6 years 18 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	86/678		10 February 1886	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1245	1 February 1886	James Fordo Annie Shaw	James Woods Annie Shaw 💍 1886/814	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Servant	30 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	86/679		1 February 1886	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1246	9 March 1886	Alfred Harry Morgan Francis Page	Harry Morgan Frances Page 💍 1886/818	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	21 18	Deborah Oamaru	20 years 10 years	The house of the Very Reverend William Coleman, Oamaru	86/683	John Page, Father	9 March 1886	Very Reverend William Coleman, Roman Catholic
1247	9 March 1886	Charles Johnson Catherine Jane Henry	Charles Johnson Catherine Jane Henry 💍 1886/787	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	24 20	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 6 months	St Paul's Church, Manse, Oamaru	86/674	Francis Henry, Father	9 March 1886	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).