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 Registrar Thomas Hawley

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

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

No	45
Date of Notice	1 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Campbell	Jessie Calder Pringle
	💍 1894/3557
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	25 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Waimataitai
Length of Residence	9 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Thomas Pringle, Waimataitai
Folio	94/3775
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 October 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister

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

No	46
Date of Notice	2 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Hay	Mary Donald Stout
	💍 1894/3540
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	44 years	39 years
Dwelling Place	Otaio Valley	Otaio Valley
Length of Residence	3 days	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. William Hay, Otaio Valley
Folio	94/3773
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 October 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. Joseph White, Presbyterian Minister

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

No	47
Date of Notice	3 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Lewis	Mary Jane White
	💍 1894/3459
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Groom
Age	24 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	6 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Oamaru
Folio	94/3763
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1894
Officiating Minister	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru

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

No	48
Date of Notice	10 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Frederick Hallship	Clarissa Hannah Ellison
BDM Match (91%)	William Frederick Hallship Merry	Clarissa Hannah Ellison
	💍 1894/3460
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	21 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Otaio	Oamaru
Length of Residence	2 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Oamaru
Folio	94/3764
Consent	Joseph Ellison, father
Date of Certificate	10 October 1894
Officiating Minister	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru

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

No	49
Date of Notice	18 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Joseph Necklen	Caroline Arthur
	💍 1894/3959
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	25 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	18 years	5 years
Marriage Place	At the house of William John Necklen, North Street, Oamaru
Folio	94/3770
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 October 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister

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

No	50
Date of Notice	24 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Hart	Sarah Ann Waterhouse
BDM Match (88%)	Alfred Hart	Eliza Ann Waterhouse
	💍 1894/3960
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Shunter
Age	24 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	2 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. John Waterhouse, Oamaru
Folio	See Notice 54
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister

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

No	51
Date of Notice	27 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Charles Rogers	Mary Ann Roberts
	💍 1894/3551
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	28 years	18 years
Dwelling Place	Pleasant Point	Pleasant Point
Length of Residence	16 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. George Roberts, Pleasant Point
Folio	94/3774
Consent	George Roberts, father
Date of Certificate	27 October 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. Joseph White, Presbyterian Minister

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

No	52
Date of Notice	29 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Kimber	Lucy Nicholls Hollow
BDM Match (91%)	Walter Kimber	Louisa Nicholls Hollow
	💍 1894/3463
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	33 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	10 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Henry Nicholls Hollow, Oamaru
Folio	See Notice No. 53
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Williams, Congregational Minister

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

No	53
Date of Notice	30 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Kimber	Louisa Nicholls Hollow
	💍 1894/3463
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	33 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	10 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Henry Nicholls Hollow, Oamaru
Folio	94/3769
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 October 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Williams, Congregational Minister

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

No	54
Date of Notice	30 October 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Hart	Eliza Ann Waterhouse
	💍 1894/3960
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Shunter
Age	24 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	2 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Alfred Hart, Oamaru
Folio	94/3771
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 October 1894
Officiating Minister	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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).