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 674

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 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
1447	4 April 1889	John Robert Murray Emily Hill	John Robert Murray Emily Hill 💍 1889/1601	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	32 16	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	89/1597	Elizabeth Palmer mother	4 April 1889	The Registrar of Marriages Oamaru
1448	9 April 1889	Enoch James Hopley Annie Morgan	Enoch James Ropley Annie Morgan 💍 1889/1603	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	33 24	Eveline Oamaru	3 years 4 years	The house of Mr. Enoch Hopley North Street Oamaru	89/1599		9 April 1889	The Revd. J. B. Todd Presbyterian
1449	16 April 1889	William Whitcombe Isabella Blaney	William Whitesmith Isabella Blaney 💍 1889/1602	Bachelor Spinster	Weaver Weaver	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 18 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	89/1598		16 April 1889	The Registrar of Marriages Oamaru
1450	16 April 1889	Thomas Cunningham Mary Harriet Adams	Thomas Cunningham Mary Harriett Adams 💍 1889/1605	Bachelor Spinster	Veterinary Surgeon Dressmaker	32 22	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 8 years	The house of Mr. Mark Sinclair Tyne Street Oamaru	89/1601		16 April 1889	Mr. J. W. Shepherd Church of Christ
1451	16 April 1889	John Macpherson Jane Sinclair Youther	John Macpherson Jane Sinclair Trotter 💍 1889/1773	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager Spinster	39	Totara Elderslie	9 years	Longbush Church Winton Invercargill	89/1800		16 April 1889	Revd. George Lindsay Presbyterian
1452	27 April 1889	Alexander Anthony McMaster Annie Reid	Alexander Anthony McMaster Annie Reid 💍 1889/1620	Bachelor Spinster	Runholder	25 25	Waikaura Elderslie	3 days 15 years	St. Lukes Church Oamaru	89/1593		27 April 1889	Revd. Adamson Gifford Church of England
1453	4 May 1889	James Gillick Maggie Mathieson	James Gillick Maggie Mathieson 💍 1889/1617	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	33 24	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 2 months	St. Patrick's Church Oamaru	89/1590		4 May 1889	Revd. William Coleman Roman Catholic
1454	6 May 1889	James Dinion Kate Helly	James Quinn Kate Kelly 💍 1889/1616	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	22 21	Oamaru Oamaru	16 years 5 years	St. Patrick's Church Oamaru	89/1589		6 May 1889	Revd. Edward Donnelly Roman Catholic

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).