Intentions to Marry, 1891

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840403, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole and Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

A few pages are missing due to focus issues.

The Archives NZ CSV index has recorded pages 765, 767 and 769 incorrectly as 795, 797 and 796.

Page 109

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 1891

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
1591	10 November 1891	Thomas Watson Flora Irving Fleming	Thomas Watson Flora Irving Fleming 💍 1891/2933	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	26 23	Oamaru Hemmington - Oamaru	24 years 23 years	The House of Mr. Fleming near Oamaru	91/3473		10 November 1891	Revd. James Dunlop D.D.
1592	10 November 1891	George Bruce Elizabeth Kenwood	George Bruce Elizabeth Henwood 💍 1891/2936	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Servant	30 28	Oamaru Oamaru	15 years 2 years	St. Luke's Church Oamaru	91/3476		10 November 1891	Revd. H. G. Gould, Church of England
1593	7 November 1891	Joseph Wylie Ellen Madden	Joseph Wylie Ellen Madden 💍 1891/2918	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Servant	30 30	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 12 years	The House of Mr. Eyre Baker, North Street, Oamaru	91/3482		7 November 1891	Revd. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1594	7 November 1891	William Jno. Morton Ellen Ellis	William John Morton Eleanor Francis Ellis 💍 1891/2938	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Clerk Teacher	22 25	Enfield Enfield	5 days 8 days	The House of Mr. Pritham Morton, Enfield	91/3478		7 November 1891	Mr. Henry Foley, Church of Christ
1595	25 November 1891	Nicholas Marsh Jessie McBride	Nicholas Marsh Jessie McBride 💍 1891/2919	Widower Widow	Constable	46 years 34 years	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 5 years	The private house of Mr. William Ward, North Street, Oamaru	91/3483		25 November 1891	Revd. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1596	7 December 1891	Gordon McAdam Annie Wallace Patterson	Gordon McAdam Annie Wallace Patterson 💍 1891/2920	Bachelor Spinster	Manager of Registry Company	29 24	Eveline Meadowbank	5 years 7 years	The House of Mr. David Patterson	91/3484		7 December 1891	Revd. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1597	21 December 1891	Frederick William Hills Eliza Ruth Watson	Frederick William Hills Eliza Ruth Watson 💍 1891/2922	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	30 18	Thurors Weston	30 years 17 years	The House of Mr. George James Watson at Weston	91/3486	George J. Watson, Father	21 December 1891	Revd. James A. Will, Presbyterian
1598	23 December 1891	Alfred Sidon Jessie Fraser	Alfred Sidon Jessie Fraser 💍 1891/2924	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Domestic Servant	25 years 26 years	Oamaru Oamaru	25 years 26 years	The House of Mr. John Grant, Reed Street, Oamaru	91/3488		23 December 1891	Revd. John Anderson, Wesleyan
1599	25 December 1891	Samuel Kerr Maud Williams	Samuel Kerr Maud Williams 💍 1892/656 Samuel Short Mary Jane Williams 💍 1891/538	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	28 22	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 years	The House of Mr. Thomas Williams, Eden Street, Oamaru	91/690		25 December 1891	Revd. A. 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).