Intentions to Marry, 1888

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840400, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 685

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1888

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
1399	21 May 1888	Bernard Whitburn Nellie Marshall Smeal	Bernard Whitham Nellie Marshall Smeal 💍 1888/1731	Widower Spinster	Coal Merchant Milliner	35 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 12 years	The house of Mr. William Smeal - Tweed Lane Oamaru	88/1686		21 May 1888	Rev. Alexr. B. Todd Presbyterian
1400	23 May 1888	William Andrew Sprott Bertha Emma Broad Mason	William Andrew Sprott Bertha Emma Croad Mason 💍 1888/1718	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Servant	30 24	Weston Weston	1 1/2 year 9 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	88/1696		23 May 1888	The Registrar of Marriages Oamaru
1401	25 May 1888	James Meehan Catherine Roonan	James Meehan Catherine Roonan 💍 1888/1726	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	29 23	Oamaru Oamaru	12 years 9 years	St. Patrick's Church Oamaru	88/1680		25 May 1888	Rev. Edward Donnelly Roman Catholic
1402	28 May 1888	William Henry Steenson Ada Cumminghame	William Henry Steenson Ada Cunninghame 💍 1888/1745	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	33 22	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 9 years	Wesley Church Oamaru	88/1673		28 May 1888	Rev. G. L. J. Spence Wesleyan
1403	1 June 1888	Thomas Lott Clara Rive	Thomas Lobb Clara Rive 💍 1888/1741	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Servant	23 18	Georgetown Georgetown	2 years 4 years	The house of Mr. John Rive Georgetown	88/1670	No person in the Colony having authority to give consent	16 June 1888	Rev. John Steven Presbyterian
1404	8 June 1888	John O'Neill Bridget Keane	John ONeil Bridget Keane 💍 1888/1727	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Dressmaker	32 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 10 years	St. Patrick's Church Oamaru	88/1681		8 June 1888	Rev. Edward Donnelly Roman Catholic
1405	11 June 1888	Murrow Don Margaret McDonald	Munrow Don Margaret McDonald 💍 1888/1732	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 27	Alma Georgetown	2 years 26 years	St. Paul's Church Oamaru	88/1687		11 June 1888	Rev. Alexr. B. Todd Presbyterian
1406	22 June 1888	David William Fraser Margaret Newman	David William Fraser Margaret Newman 💍 1888/1710	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Dressmaker	22 21	Oamaru Oamaru	14 years 21 years	The house of Mr. Mark Newman - Sharp Street - Oamaru	88/1688		22 June 1888	Rev. Alexr. 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).