Intentions to Marry, 1895 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840407, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, June 11 2025.

1895 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 871

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1895

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
1775	1 April 1895	James Talbott Maria Franklin	James Callestt Maria Franklin 💍 1895/698	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Dressmaker	32 20	Oamaru South Oamaru	5 years 18 years	Columba Manse, Oamaru	95/1953	John Franklin, Father	1 April 1895	Rev. Wm. Wright, Presbyterian
1776	4 April 1895	Ernest Page Lee Jane S. de Lambert	Ernest Page Lee Jane Winfield de Lambert 💍 1895/4056	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	32 20	Oamaru Oamaru	9 years 10 years	St. Luke's Church, Oamaru	95/1966	Jane de Lambert, Mother	4 April 1895	Rev. Canon H. J. Gould, Church of England
1777	5 April 1895	William Fairtain Charlotte Jane Burns	William Fairbairn Charlotte Jane Burns 💍 1895/725	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	25 18	Enfield Enfield	2 years 18 years	The house of Mrs. William Burns, Enfield	95/1959	Rebecca Burns, Mother	5 April 1895	Rev. W. S. B. Marten, Wesleyan
1778	8 April 1895	Walter John Kerr Mitchell Catherine Lindsay Cunningham	Walter John Kerr Mitchell Catherine Lindsay Cunningham 💍 1895/728	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 19	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 19 years	The house of Mrs. Janet Cunningham, Humber Street, Oamaru	95/1962	Janet Cunningham, Guardian	8 April 1895	Rev. Alex. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1779	8 April 1895	Alexander McGregor Annie Pocklington	Alexander McGregor Annie Pocklington 💍 1895/4054	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	21 18	Oamaru Oamaru	21 years 17 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	95/1949	Samuel Pocklington, Father	8 April 1895	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1780	10 April 1895	David Boland Mary Burke	David Boland Mary Burke 💍 1895/709	Bachelor Spinster	Cropper Servant	36 32	Totara Oamaru	8 years 16 years	St. Patrick's Basilica, Oamaru	95/1967		10 April 1895	Rev. Wm. Arch. McMullen, Roman Catholic
1781	10 April 1895	John Anderson Mary Stewart	John Anderson Mary Stewart 💍 1895/4053	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	40 21	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 3 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	95/1948		10 April 1895	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1782	17 April 1895	Duncan McEwan Mary Cafferly	Duncan McLaren Mary Casserly 💍 1895/4124	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 26	Oamaru Oamaru	24 years 3 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	95/1950		17 April 1895	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
1783	18 April 1895	James McDiarmid Agnes Lydia Bain	James McDiarmid Agnes Lydia Bain 💍 1895/707	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Saleswoman	24 25	Oamaru Totara, Oamaru	5 years 25 years	The house of Mr. Robert Bain, Totara	95/1963		18 April 1895	Rev. Alex. B. Todd, Presbyterian

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).