Intentions to Marry, 1897 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840411, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 25 2025

1897 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 919

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1897 Registrar Henry Hawthorne Grant Ralfe

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

1909

22 May 1897

William Keane
Catherine Gilligan

William Keane
Catherine Gilligan
💍 1897/1359

Bachelor
Widow

Farm Labourer

40
29

Windsor Park, Oamaru
Elderlie, Oamaru

2 years
3 years

Roman Catholic Church at Reed Street, Oamaru

97/2339

22 May 1897

Very Rev. John Mackay (Roman Catholic Church)

No	1909
Date of Notice	22 May 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Keane	Catherine Gilligan
	💍 1897/1359
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Farm Labourer
Age	40	29
Dwelling Place	Windsor Park, Oamaru	Elderlie, Oamaru
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church at Reed Street, Oamaru
Folio	97/2339
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 May 1897
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. John Mackay (Roman Catholic Church)

1910

25 May 1897

John Wallace Sinclair
Elizabeth Thompson

John Wallace Sinclair
Elizabeth Thompson
💍 1897/3470

Bachelor
Spinster

Ploughman
Housekeeper

30
22

Weston, Oamaru
Weston, Oamaru

1 year
6 months

At the house of Mr. Michael Doyle at Weston

97/2340

25 May 1897

Rev. James Standring (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

No	1910
Date of Notice	25 May 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Wallace Sinclair	Elizabeth Thompson
	💍 1897/3470
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ploughman	Housekeeper
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Weston, Oamaru	Weston, Oamaru
Length of Residence	1 year	6 months
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr. Michael Doyle at Weston
Folio	97/2340
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 May 1897
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Standring (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

1911

26 May 1897

Patrick Coohigan
Johanna Direen

Patrick Costigan
Johanna Direen
💍 1897/3641

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

35
28

Oamaru
Oamaru

17 years
17 years

Roman Catholic Church at Reed Street, Oamaru

97/2341

26 May 1897

Very Rev. John Mackay (Roman Catholic Church)

No	1911
Date of Notice	26 May 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Coohigan	Johanna Direen
BDM Match (94%)	Patrick Costigan	Johanna Direen
	💍 1897/3641
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	35	28
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	17 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church at Reed Street, Oamaru
Folio	97/2341
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 May 1897
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. John Mackay (Roman Catholic Church)

1912

28 May 1897

John Stewart Rattray Duff
Marjory Grant Calder

John Stewart Rattray Duff
Marjory Grant Calder
💍 1897/1366

Bachelor
Spinster

Ploughman

26
23

Totara, Oamaru
Totara, Oamaru

4 years
10 years

At the house of Mr. Marjory Calder at Round Hill

97/2342

28 May 1897

Rev. William Wright (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

No	1912
Date of Notice	28 May 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stewart Rattray Duff	Marjory Grant Calder
	💍 1897/1366
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ploughman
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Totara, Oamaru	Totara, Oamaru
Length of Residence	4 years	10 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr. Marjory Calder at Round Hill
Folio	97/2342
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 May 1897
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Wright (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

1913

31 May 1897

William Henry Wills
Catherine Avery

William Henry Wills
Catherine Avery
💍 1897/1350

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

24
21

Oamaru
Oamaru

3 days
18 months

At the house of Mr. William Avery at Humber Street, Oamaru

97/2336

31 May 1897

Rev. James Milne (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

No	1913
Date of Notice	31 May 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Wills	Catherine Avery
	💍 1897/1350
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	18 months
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr. William Avery at Humber Street, Oamaru
Folio	97/2336
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 May 1897
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Milne (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

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).