Intentions to Marry, 1890

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840402, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 1077

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 1890 Registrar W. G. Illene

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
1513	20 June 1890	George Whalley Violet Morton	George Whalley Violet Morton 💍 1890/1603	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	28 18	Oamaru Oamaru	6 days 6 days	St Lukes Church Oamaru	90/2577	Person in Colony to give consent	5 July 1890	Revd. H. G. Gould Church of England
1515	19 July 1890	David Thomas Giffard Marian Jensen	David Thomas Gibbard Marian Sophie Jensen 💍 1890/1605	Bachelor Spinster	Hawker Housemaid	22 22	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	Wesley Church Parsonage Oamaru	90/2579		19 July 1890	Revd. W. G. Parsonson Wesleyan
1516	23 July 1890	James Tucker Jeannie McLaren	James Tucker Jeannie McLaren 💍 1890/1586 James Scott Kate McLaren 💍 1890/2685	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 26	Oamaru Oamaru	1 month 18 months	The house of Mr William Crombie Wharf Street Oamaru	90/2583		23 July 1890	Revd. A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1517	6 August 1890	John William Tremayne Jessie Sutherland	John William Tremayne Jessie Sutherland 💍 1890/1587	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	39 31	Awamoa South Oamaru	13 years 12 months	The house of Mr Peter McNab South Oamaru	90/2584		6 August 1890	Revd. A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1518	11 August 1890	William Rose McKenzie Euphemia Eliza Kilgour	William Rose McKenzie Euphemia Clarice Rilgour 💍 1890/1588	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	28 21	Totara Oamaru	2 years 12 years	The house of Mr Alexander Kilgour Eden Street Oamaru	90/2585		11 August 1890	Revd. A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1519	11 August 1890	John Green Margaret Sinclair	John Green Margaret Sinclair 💍 1890/1606	Bachelor Widow	Shepherd	35 31	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 6 years	The house of Mr David Sandilands Trent Street Oamaru	90/2580		11 August 1890	Revd. W. G. Parsonson Wesleyan
1520	13 August 1890	Harry Baker Watson Mary Elizabeth Sincock	Harry Baker Watson Mary Elizabeth Sincock 💍 1890/1584	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	21 19	Oamaru Oamaru	18 months 15 years	The house of Mr Sincock Thames Street Oamaru	90/2581		13 August 1890	Revd. W. G. Parsonson Wesleyan
1521	20 August 1890	John Ward Eliza Mullin	John Ward Eliza Mullin 💍 1890/1590	Bachelor Spinster	Cab-driver Tailoress	26 25	Oamaru Oamaru	18 years 2 1/2 years	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	90/2587		20 August 1890	The Registrar of Marriages Oamaru
1522	22 August 1890	John Murphy Eliza Burling	John Murphy Eliza Burling 💍 1890/1600	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Weaver	26 25	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 4 years	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	90/2574		22 August 1890	Revd. John Mackay Roman Catholic
1523	26 August 1890	James White Mary Hannigan	James White Mary Hannigan 💍 1890/1591	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	35 27	Kenton Kenton	18 months 18 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	90/2588		26 August 1890	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 1899. 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).