Intentions to Marry, 1894

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840406, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 6 2025

Page 378

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1894

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
1707	4 January 1894	William James McVee Annie Jane Black	William James McVee Annie Jane Black 💍 1894/951	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic servant	30 22	Oamaru Oamaru	10 days 10 days	St Paul's Church, Oamaru	94/929	4 January 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1708	4 January 1894	James Hallow Isabella Walker	James Hollow Isabella Walker 💍 1894/959	Widower Spinster	Laborer Cook	24 28	Oamaru Oamaru	19 years 15 years	William State, Oamaru	94/936	4 January 1894	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1709	4 January 1894	James Marshall Smith Susan Perry	James Marshall Smith Susan Perry 💍 1894/879	Bachelor Spinster	Barman Housemaid	28 23	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 7 years	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	94/939	4 January 1894	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1710	10 January 1894	Edward Sullivan Elizabeth Whitley	Edward Mulligan Elizabeth McAuley 💍 1894/947 Edward Austin Elizabeth Lindsay 💍 1895/2654	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 22	Oamaru Georgetown	7 years 22 years	St Joseph's Church, Oamaru	94/924	10 January 1894	Very Rev. John Hawley, Roman Catholic
1711	13 January 1894	Robert Crawford Young Janet Muir Mackay	Robert Crawford Young Janet Muir Mackay 💍 1894/952	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	29 27	Oamaru Oamaru	1 year 2 years	St Paul's Church, Oamaru	94/930	13 January 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1712	23 January 1894	James Nicholas Surrell Margaret Ann Forbes	James Nicholus Mursell Margaret Ann Forbes 💍 1894/953	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	37 20	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	St Paul's Church, Oamaru	94/931	23 January 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1713	26 January 1894	Duncan McVeil Jemima McShortis	Duncan McNeil Jemima McMurtrie 💍 1894/954	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	23 23	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 16 years	St Paul's Church, Oamaru	94/932	26 January 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1714	26 January 1894	John Mulvena Wilhelmina May Kennedy	John Mulvena Wilhelmina Gray Kennedy 💍 1894/948	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 20	Oamaru Oamaru	6 days 4 weeks	St Joseph's Church, Oamaru	94/925	26 January 1894	Rev. J. M. Cullen, Roman Catholic
1715	31 January 1894	William George Lawless Agnes Coulthard Smellie	William George Lawless Agnes Coulthard Smellie 💍 1894/3925	Widower Spinster	Commercial Traveller Saleswoman	35 29	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 14 days	St Paul's Church, Oamaru	94/928	31 January 1894	Rev. H. G. Gould, Church of England

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).