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 Registrar W. G. Fillieul

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

No	1439
Date of Notice	25 January 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles North	Elizabeth Cruickshank
	💍 1889/521
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miller	Servant
Age	39	22
Dwelling Place	Reidston	Reidston
Length of Residence	3 years	2 months
Marriage Place	The house of Mr. Joseph Cruickshank, Reidston
Folio	89/635
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1889
Officiating Minister	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

No	1440
Date of Notice	29 January 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Fitzgerald	Margaret Sullivan
	💍 1889/520
BDM Match (70%)	James Fitzgerald	Hanorah Sullivan
	💍 1889/1761
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotelkeeper	Waitress
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	4 weeks	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru
Folio	89/634
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1889
Officiating Minister	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

No	1441
Date of Notice	1st February 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Doyle	Johanna Green
	💍 1889/1610
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	6 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru
Folio	89/1588
Consent	No person in Colony to give consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1889
Officiating Minister	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

No	1442
Date of Notice	7th February 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Church	Mary Truman
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter	Servant
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 years	3 days
Marriage Place	The house of Rev. Alexander Barr, Arun Street, Oamaru
Folio	89/638
Consent
Date of Certificate	7th February 1889
Officiating Minister	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

No	1443
Date of Notice	7th February 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Gray Watkins	Mary Aitken
	💍 1889/526
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Servant
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	8 years	2 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
Folio	89/639
Consent
Date of Certificate	7th February 1889
Officiating Minister	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

No	1444
Date of Notice	7th February 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Burns	Margaret Elizabeth Peet
BDM Match (98%)	Richard Burns	Margaret Elizabeth Peat
	💍 1889/523
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	8 years	20 years
Marriage Place	The house of Mr. William Peet, Wansbeck Street, Oamaru
Folio	89/637
Consent
Date of Certificate	7th February 1889
Officiating Minister	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

No	1445
Date of Notice	12th February 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Dunlop	Ellen Rogers
	💍 1889/522
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Servant
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	4 days	1 year
Marriage Place	The house of Mr. John Gillies, Wansbeck Junction
Folio	89/636
Consent
Date of Certificate	12th February 1889
Officiating Minister	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

No	1446
Date of Notice	28 February 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Green	Annie Mills
BDM Match (85%)	William Scoon	Annie Mills
	💍 1889/527
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Millworker	Servant
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	10 months	15 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
Folio	89/640
Consent	No person in Colony to give consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1889
Officiating Minister	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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).