Intentions to Marry, 1900 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840418, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, September 12 2025

1900 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 483

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 1900 Registrar Robert Percy Hard

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
2087	8 August 1900	John Gillespie Marion Aitcheson	John Gillespie Marion Aitchison 💍 1900/4057	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Farmer	26 29	Avarnoko Avarnoko	12 years 13 years at Avarnoko	At the Residence of Mrs Marion Aitcheson	00/3972		8 August 1900	Rev. John Steven
2088	11 August 1900	John Tonkin Hannah Elizabeth Oggall	John Tonkin Susannah Elizabeth Pygall 💍 1900/4056	Bachelor Spinster	Cloth Finisher Clerk	23 24	Weston Oamaru	20 years 24 years	The Salvation Army Barracks, Thames St. Oamaru	00/3971		11 August 1900	Major Jonah Evans
2089	18 August 1900	Joseph Connell Isabella Kate Steele	Joseph Donnell Isabella Kate Steele 💍 1900/4054	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	42 29	Elderslie Oamaru	6 years 4 days	At the office of Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	00/3969		18 August 1900	Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
2090	20 August 1900	Robert Crombie Susannah Dale Hunter	Robert Crombie Susannah Watsan Hunter 💍 1900/4051	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Domestic Servant	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	20 years 6 years	At Residence of Mr William Thompson	00/3966		20 August 1900	Rev. William Wright
2091	21 August 1900	Henry James Barken Amelia Townsend	Henry James Bartlett Amelia Townsend 💍 1900/4058 Henry Barron Thorpe Alice Townsend 💍 1900/3925	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	23 19	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 19 years	At the Residence of Mr Francis Henry	00/3973	Francis Henry, father	21 August 1900	Rev. Josiah Ward
2092	27 August 1900	William Burrows Harkness Janet Forrest McGregor	William Renwick Harkness Janet Forrester McGregor 💍 1900/4055	Bachelor Spinster	Cheese Factory Manager	28 23	Oamaru Weston	5 days 23 years	At the Residence of Mr Daniel McGregor, Weston, Oamaru	00/3970		27 August 1900	Rev. Jas. Standing
2093	28 August 1900	Simon McKee Mary Goodall	Simon McGee Mary Goodall 💍 1900/5270	Widower Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	35 22	Totara Totara	14 years 6 months	At the Residence of Mr Simon McKee	00/5497		28 August 1900	Rev. Michael Howard

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 1899. 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).