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 826

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1725	3 April 1894	George Bradfield Elizabeth Damery	George Bradfield Elizabeth Damery 💍 1894/1922	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Housemaid	29 23	Oamaru Oamaru	3 months 1 week	St. Luke's Church, Oamaru	94/1931		3 April 1894	Rev. A. G. Gould, Church of England
1726	6 April 1894	Thomas Kerr Florence Caroline Eliza Reddell	Thomas Kerr Florence Caroline Eliza Keddell 💍 1894/2196	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	25 22	Oamaru District Oamaru	3 days 18 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	94/1925		6 April 1894	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1727	16 April 1894	Frederick James Still Ellen Millin	Frederick James Still Emmer Ellen Millin 💍 1894/1914	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	24 21	Oamaru Oamaru	2 months 21 years	The house of W. Stewart, Warren Street, Oamaru	94/1929		16 April 1894	Rev. W. B. Marten, Wesleyan
1728	17 April 1894	Thomas Jones Elizabeth Archer Doak	Thomas Jones Elizabeth Archer Doak 💍 1894/1924	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 17	Ngapara Alma	7 years 7 years	St. Paul's Church, Oamaru	94/1933	William Doak, Father	17 April 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1729	20 April 1894	James Lent Robertson Grace Fairley Barr	James Kent Robertson Grace Fairley Barr 💍 1894/1925	Bachelor Spinster	Engine-cleaner Servant	23 17	Waimate Oamaru	9 years 9 years	The house of W. Thomas, Usk Street, Oamaru	94/1934	John Stewart Barr, Father	25 April 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1730	25 April 1894	Francis Gibbs Florence Murray Cameron	Francis Gibbs Florence Murray Cameron 💍 1894/1927	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Cook	26 30	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 8 years	The house of W. James Robertson, Reed Street, Oamaru	94/1936		25 April 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1731	30 April 1894	George Newman Hannah Carr	George Newman Hannah Carr 💍 1894/2197	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	34 21	Oamaru Oamaru	1 week 10 weeks	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	94/1926		30 April 1894	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1732	30 April 1894	John Fulton Ferguson Caroline Ferguson Smart	John Fulton Ferguson Caroline Ferguson Smart 💍 1894/1926	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	20 19	Oamaru Oamaru	9 months 9 years	The house of W. John Thompson, Eden Street, Oamaru	94/1935	James Ferguson, Father; Janet Thompson, Mother	30 April 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1733	19 May 1894	Charles Carson Sarah Jane Lewis	Charles Carson Sarah Jane Lewis 💍 1894/2198	Bachelor Spinster	Coachpainter Servant	28 21	Oamaru Weston	3 weeks 19 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	94/1927		19 May 1894	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru

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).