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 379

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1716	21 February 1894	John Macdonald Matilda Brooks	John Macdonald Matilda Brooks 💍 1894/955	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 24	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 2 years	The house of Mr. Robert Murray, From Street, Oamaru	94/933		21 February 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1717	23 February 1894	John McEwen Agnes Gibson	John McEwen Agnes Gibson 💍 1894/957	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	24 18	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 18 years	The house of Mr. Gibson, Chelmer Street, Oamaru	94/934	Mary Gibson, Mother	23 February 1894	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1718	26 February 1894	James Simpson Isabella McNeill	James Simpson Isabella McNeil 💍 1894/886 James Simpson Isabella Miller 💍 1894/1781	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	32 44	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	94/941		26 February 1894	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1719	26 February 1894	William McKinley Kate Maude Zander	William McKinlay Kate Maude Zander 💍 1894/885	Widower Widow	Ploughman Housekeeper	59 39	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	94/940		26 February 1894	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1720	16 March 1894	William John Tiddy Elizabeth Phillips	William John Tiddy Elizabeth Phillip 💍 1894/958	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer's Assistant	24 23	Oamaru Oamaru	24 years 3 years	The house of John Tiddy, Eden Street, Oamaru	94/935		16 March 1894	Rev. John Steven, Presbyterian
1721	26 March 1894	James Pocklington Agnes Cairns	James Pocklington Agnes Cairns 💍 1894/960	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 23	Oamaru Oamaru	14 years 14 years	Wesleyan Church, Eden Street, Oamaru	94/937		26 March 1894	Rev. J. A. Luxford, Wesleyan
1722	28 March 1894	John Heavey Caroline Ring	John Heavey Caroline Ring 💍 1894/949	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Dressmaker	21 21	Oamaru Oamaru	17 years 18 years	St. Joseph's Church, Oamaru	94/926		28 March 1894	Rev. Wm. McMullen, Roman Catholic
1723	28 March 1894	Andrew Peter Direen Sarah Hickey	Andrew Direen Sarah Hickey 💍 1894/950	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic Servant	32 30	Oamaru Oamaru	14 years 5 years	St. Joseph's Church, Oamaru	94/927		28 March 1894	Rev. Wm. McMullen, Roman Catholic
1724	29 March 1894	William Donald Burns Florence Victoria Brown	William Donald Burns Florence Victoria Brown 💍 1894/868	Bachelor Spinster	Printer's Machinist Waitress	29 28	Oamaru Oamaru	27 years 14 days	The residence of Mr. William Donald Burns, Thames Street, Oamaru	94/938		29 March 1894	Rev. J. A. Luxford, Wesleyan

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).