Intentions to Marry, 1889

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840401, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 280

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1889

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
1439	25 January 1889	Charles North Elizabeth Cruickshank	Charles North Elizabeth Cruickshank 💍 1889/521	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Servant	39 22	Reidston Reidston	3 years 2 months	The house of Mr. Joseph Cruickshank, Reidston	89/635		25 January 1889	Rev. Alex. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1440	29 January 1889	John Fitzgerald Margaret Sullivan	John Fitzgerald Margaret Sullivan 💍 1889/520 James Fitzgerald Hanorah Sullivan 💍 1889/1761	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper Waitress	32 28	Oamaru Oamaru	4 weeks 8 years	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru	89/634		29 January 1889	Rev. Edward Donnelly, Roman Catholic
1441	1st February 1889	Patrick Doyle Johanna Green	Patrick Doyle Johanna Green 💍 1889/1610	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 20	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 2 years	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru	89/1588	No person in Colony to give consent	14 March 1889	Rev. Edward Donnelly, Roman Catholic
1442	7th February 1889	Samuel Church Mary Truman		Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	25 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 3 days	The house of Rev. Alexander Barr, Arun Street, Oamaru	89/638		7th February 1889	Rev. G. J. S. P. Spence, Wesleyan
1443	7th February 1889	Charles Gray Watkins Mary Aitken	Charles Gray Watkins Mary Aitken 💍 1889/526	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	32 23	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 2 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	89/639		7th February 1889	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1444	7th February 1889	Richard Burns Margaret Elizabeth Peet	Richard Burns Margaret Elizabeth Peat 💍 1889/523	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 26	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 20 years	The house of Mr. William Peet, Wansbeck Street, Oamaru	89/637		7th February 1889	Rev. Alex. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1445	12th February 1889	Samuel Dunlop Ellen Rogers	Samuel Dunlop Ellen Rogers 💍 1889/522	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	27 22	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 1 year	The house of Mr. John Gillies, Wansbeck Junction	89/636		12th February 1889	Rev. Alex. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1446	28 February 1889	William Green Annie Mills	William Scoon Annie Mills 💍 1889/527	Bachelor Spinster	Millworker Servant	22 19	Oamaru Oamaru	10 months 15 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	89/640	No person in Colony to give consent	16 March 1889	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru

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).