Intentions to Marry, 1893

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840405, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole and Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 6 2025.

A few pages are missing due to focus issues.

Page 785

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1893

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
1663	5 April 1893	Patrick Flannery Elizabeth O'Leary	Patrick Flannery Elizabeth O'Leary 💍 1893/2115	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	30 19	Oamaru Oamaru	1 week 19 years	St Joseph's Church, Oamaru	93/1992	Ellen O'Leary, mother	5 April 1893	Revd John Barclay, Roman Catholic
1664	11 April 1893	Francis James McLintock Dinah Stephen		Bachelor Spinster	Tea Importer	26 24	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	St Joseph's Church, Oamaru	93/1993		11 April 1893	Revd William Mc Mullen, Roman Catholic
1665	12 April 1893	Henry Brockett Mary Matheson	Henry Brockett Mary Matheson 💍 1893/4178 Edward Henry Rogers Mary Matheson 💍 1893/1431	Bachelor Spinster	Wool-draper	38 23	Oamaru Ngapara	4 days 18 months	The house of the Registrar, Ngapara	93/1997		12 April 1893	Revd James A. Will, Presbyterian
1666	12 April 1893	George Hilton Porter Elizabeth Helen Fairley	George Milton Procter Elizabeth Helen Fairley 💍 1893/2135	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	27 21	Oamaru Oamaru	10 years 21 years	Church of England, Oamaru	93/1990		12 April 1893	Revd H. G. Gould
1667	17 April 1893	Francis James Slater Ohlia Laherty	Francis James Slater Dhlia Flaherty 💍 1893/2121	Widower Spinster	Saddler Servant	36 23	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 6 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	93/1999		17 April 1893	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1668	19 April 1893	John Rankin Alice Chalmers Howden	John Rankin Alice Chalmers Howden 💍 1893/2123	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 17	Ngapara Ngapara	3 years 6 years	St Paul's Church, Ngapara	93/2001	John Howden, Father	19 April 1893	Revd Alexr. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1669	24 April 1893	David William Gray Catherine Turnbull	David William Gray Catherine Turnbull 💍 1893/2122	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 21	Pukeuri Pukeuri	11 years 6 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	93/2000		24 April 1893	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1670	1 May 1893	Simon O'Keefe Ellen O'Brien	Simon McGee Ellen O'Brien 💍 1893/2117	Bachelor Spinster	Cropper Servant	28 30	Totara Oamaru	6 years 3 years	St Joseph's Church, Oamaru	93/1994		1 May 1893	Revd William Mc Mullen, Roman Catholic
1671	10 May 1893	William Gunn Donald Jessie Calder	William Gunn McDonald Bessie Calder 💍 1893/2120	Bachelor Spinster	Cropper Servant	51 30	Totara Totara	25 years 8 years	The house of Revd A. Will, Totara	93/1998	William Calder	10 May 1893	Revd A. Will, Presbyterian
1672	20 May 1893	James Carter Klymont Mary Gourlay Burns	James Carter McClymont Mary Gourlay Burns 💍 1893/2126	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Housemaid	24 24	Oamaru Kakanui North	4 days 2 years	The house of Revd William Wright, Kakanui North	93/2004		20 May 1893	Revd William Wright, 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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).