Intentions to Marry, 1892

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840404, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

Page 1317

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1892

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1601	5 January 1892	John Ferguson June Scott	John Ferguson Jane Scott 💍 1892/655	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	29 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	St Paul's Church Manse. Oamaru	92/689	5 January 1892	Rev. Alexr B. Todd Presbyterian
1602	5 January 1892	William Henry McKeay Elizabeth Mulligan	William Henry McKeay Elizabeth Mulligan 💍 1892/652	Bachelor Spinster	Law Clerk	29 28	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	92/686	5 January 1892	Revd John McKay Roman Catholic
1603	8 January 1892	Hugh Reginald Thomas Mary Ann Mitchell	Hugh Reginald Thomas Mary Ann Mitchell 💍 1892/659	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Dressmaker	24 25	Oamaru Oamaru	24 years 25 years	The house of Mrs Mitchell Gore Street Oamaru	92/693	8 January 1892	Revd John A. Luxford Wesleyan
1604	11 January 1892	Noah Mortimer Elizabeth Smith	Noah Mortimer Elizabeth Smith 💍 1892/663	Widower Spinster	Platelayer Servant	46 30	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	92/696	11 January 1892	The Registrar of Marriages Oamaru
1605	12 January 1892	John Norton Margaret Wilson	John Scales Norton Margaret Wilson 💍 1892/672	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 27	Oamaru Papakaio	12 years 20 years	The house of Mrs John Wilson at Papakaio	92/683	12 January 1892	Revd John Steven Presbyterian
1606	18 January 1892	Thomas Gibson Louisa Kelly	Thomas Gibson Louisa Kelly 💍 1892/673	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	35 years 24 years	Nyapara Papakaio	6 years 4 years	The house of Mr Edgirin Kelly at Papakaio	92/684	18 January 1892	Revd John Steven Presbyterian
1607	23 January 1892	John Alexander Calder Mary Page	John Alexander Calder Mary Page 💍 1892/653	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Servant	30 years 30 years	Inchholme Oamaru	2 weeks 12 years	Residence of the Roman Catholic Clergyman Oamaru	92/687	23 January 1892	Revd John McKay Roman Catholic
1608	6 February 1892	Patrick Kelly Mary O'Connell	Patrick Kelly Mary O'Connell 💍 1892/654	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 years 25 years	Totara Binn's Point	10 years 25 years	Church of St Joseph Oamaru	92/688	6 February 1892	Revd John McKay Roman Catholic
1609	9 February 1892	Michael Condon Julia Hendrick	Michael Condon Julia Hendrick 💍 1892/664	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 years 23 years	Oamaru Oamaru	5 days 4 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	92/697	9 February 1892	The Registrar of Marriages Oamaru
1610	15 February 1892	Peter Donald Johnston Maggie Twelfree	Peter Donald Johnston Maggie Twelftree 💍 1892/660	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	21 21	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 14 months	The house of Mr Peter Donald Johnston Sharp Street Oamaru	92/694	15 February 1892	Revd John A. Luxford Wesleyan

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).