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 1605

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 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
45	1 October 1894	William Campbell Jessie Calder Pringle	William Campbell Jessie Calder Pringle 💍 1894/3557	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 years 23 years	Oamaru Waimataitai	9 years 15 years	Residence of Mr. Thomas Pringle, Waimataitai	94/3775		1 October 1894	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
46	2 October 1894	Robert Hay Mary Donald Stout	Robert Hay Mary Donald Stout 💍 1894/3540	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	44 years 39 years	Otaio Valley Otaio Valley	3 days 6 years	Residence of Mr. William Hay, Otaio Valley	94/3773		2 October 1894	Rev. Joseph White, Presbyterian Minister
47	3 October 1894	George Lewis Mary Jane White	George Lewis Mary Jane White 💍 1894/3459	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	24 years 21 years	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 9 years	Registrar's Office, Oamaru	94/3763		3 October 1894	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
48	10 October 1894	William Frederick Hallship Clarissa Hannah Ellison	William Frederick Hallship Merry Clarissa Hannah Ellison 💍 1894/3460	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 years 19 years	Otaio Oamaru	2 years 18 years	Registrar's Office, Oamaru	94/3764	Joseph Ellison, father	10 October 1894	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
49	18 October 1894	Henry Joseph Necklen Caroline Arthur	Henry Joseph Necklen Caroline Arthur 💍 1894/3959	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 years 20 years	Oamaru Oamaru	18 years 5 years	At the house of William John Necklen, North Street, Oamaru	94/3770		18 October 1894	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
50	24 October 1894	Alfred Hart Sarah Ann Waterhouse	Alfred Hart Eliza Ann Waterhouse 💍 1894/3960	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Shunter	24 years 24 years	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 24 years	Residence of Mr. John Waterhouse, Oamaru	See Notice 54		24 October 1894	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
51	27 October 1894	Henry Charles Rogers Mary Ann Roberts	Henry Charles Rogers Mary Ann Roberts 💍 1894/3551	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 years 18 years	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	16 years 4 years	Residence of Mr. George Roberts, Pleasant Point	94/3774	George Roberts, father	27 October 1894	Rev. Joseph White, Presbyterian Minister
52	29 October 1894	Walter Kimber Lucy Nicholls Hollow	Walter Kimber Louisa Nicholls Hollow 💍 1894/3463	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	33 years 23 years	Oamaru Oamaru	10 years 10 years	Residence of Mr. Henry Nicholls Hollow, Oamaru	See Notice No. 53		29 October 1894	Rev. George Williams, Congregational Minister
53	30 October 1894	Walter Kimber Louisa Nicholls Hollow	Walter Kimber Louisa Nicholls Hollow 💍 1894/3463	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	33 years 23 years	Oamaru Oamaru	10 years 10 years	Residence of Mr. Henry Nicholls Hollow, Oamaru	94/3769		30 October 1894	Rev. George Williams, Congregational Minister
54	30 October 1894	Alfred Hart Eliza Ann Waterhouse	Alfred Hart Eliza Ann Waterhouse 💍 1894/3960	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Shunter	24 years 24 years	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 24 years	Residence of Mr. Alfred Hart, Oamaru	94/3771		30 October 1894	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister

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).