Intentions to Marry, 1895 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840408, 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 398

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 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
1800	1 July 1895	James Welsh Margaret Ann Milligan	John Welsh Margaret Ann Milligan 💍 1895/1569	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	37 21	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 21 years	The house of Mr. John Welsh, Till Street, Oamaru	95/2782		1 July 1895	Rev. T. S. B. Martin, Wesleyan
1801	5 July 1895	George Harvey Agnes Mitchell	George Harvey Agnes Mitchell 💍 1895/1433	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	Weston Weston	5 years 13 years	The house of Mr. Henry Mitchell, Parkside, Weston	95/2789		5 July 1895	Rev. James Standring, Presbyterian
1802	23 July 1895	Lunam Dewar Margaret Sutherland Sheldram	Lunan Dewar Margaret Sutherland Meldrum 💍 1895/1571	Bachelor Spinster	Assistant Ironmonger	34 years 21 years	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 21 years	The house of Mr. Andrew Sheldram, 9 Usk Street, Oamaru	95/2785		23 July 1895	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1803	24 July 1895	William Michael Fraser Hannah Watson Hedley	William Michael Fraer Hannah Watson Hedley 💍 1895/3903	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 years 24 years	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 24 years	St. Paul's Church, Oamaru	95/2783		24 July 1895	Rev. Wm. Wright, Presbyterian
1804	26 July 1895	Charles Staniford Mary Boll	Charles Staniford Mary Boll 💍 1895/1432	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic Servant	24 years 20 years	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 2 years	The house of Mr. Charles Staniford, South Oamaru	95/2788	Hugh Boll, Father	26 July 1895	Rev. James Glover, Primitive Methodist
1805	30 July 1895	Allan Garth Macgregor Marie Gillespie Ross	Allan Garth Macgregor Marie Gillespie Ross 💍 1895/1572	Bachelor Spinster	Indentor	25 years 23 years	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 23 years	The house of Mr. Charles Gillespie Ross, Greta Street, Oamaru	95/2786		30 July 1895	Rev. A. B. Todd, Presbyterian
1806	1 August 1895	James Williams Ellen Eliza Acland	James Williams Ellen Eliza Acland 💍 1895/1431	Widower Spinster	Mason Dressmaker	52 years 37 years	Oamaru Oamaru	21 years 10 years	St. Luke's Church, Oamaru	95/2787		1 August 1895	Rev. Canon H. G. Gould, Church of England
1807	18 September 1895	John White Emma Dyer	John White Emma Dyer 💍 1895/1618	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Barmaid	38 36	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 2 years	St. Patrick's Basilica, Oamaru	95/2969		18 September 1895	Very Rev. J. MacKay, Roman Catholic
1808	21 September 1895	John Blackley Margaret Leal	John Blackley Margaret Leal 💍 1895/1570	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Cook	36 26	Kakanui Kakanui	3 years 9 months	St. Columba Church, Manse, Oamaru	95/2784		21 September 1895	Rev. Wm. Wright, Presbyterian
1809	26 September 1895	John Macqueen Isabella Caldwell	John MacQueen Isabella Caldwell 💍 1895/1389	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer's Assistant	27 26	Oamaru Hampden	20 years	The house of Mr. George Caldwell, Hampden	95/2753		26 September 1895	Rev. Wm. Nichol, 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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).