Intentions to Marry, 1901 South Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840420, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, September 22 2025

1901 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 895

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar R P Ward

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
2179	18 December 1901	Charles Jamieson Ada Bush	Charles Jamieson Ada Bush 💍 1901/5072	Widower Spinster	Seaman	42 29	Oamaru Oamaru	3 months 4 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	01/5665	18 December 1901	R P Ward, Registrar of Marriages
2180	19 December 1901	James Spensley Jane Thompson	James Spensley Jane Thompson 💍 1901/5508 James Lundy Sarah Thompson 💍 1901/2231	Widower Widow	Music Seller	70 50	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 7 days	Wesleyan Parsonage, Oamaru	01/6051	19 December 1901	Rev. Josiah Ward
2181	19 December 1901	John Inglis Cairns Louisa Jane Cunningham	John Inglis Cairns Louisa Jane Cunningham 💍 1901/5076	Bachelor Spinster	Milling Assistant Weaver	25 22	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 22 years	Residence of Mr J. D. Cunningham, Ouse St. Oamaru	01/5669	19 December 1901	Rev. C. D. Cox
2182	20 December 1901	Robert James McClintex Ann Tobin	Robert James McClintock Anne Tobin 💍 1901/6096	Bachelor Spinster	Barman Barmaid	32 27	Oamaru Oamaru	21 months 2 1/2 years	Residence of Mr Alexander Potter, Itchen St. Oamaru	01/6003	20 December 1901	Right Rev. Monsignor John Mackay
2183	23 December 1901	Thomas Kain Margaret Waddell	Thomas Kain Margaret Waddell 💍 1901/5083	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Manager Music Teacher	34 33	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 2 months	Residence of Mr John Church, Ure St. Oamaru	01/5675	23 December 1901	Rev. R. J. Porters
2184	27 December 1901	Alfred William Millett Margaret Moore	Alfred William Willetts Margaret Moore 💍 1901/5085	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 25	Papakaio Oamaru	25 years 25 years	Residence of Mr John Moore, Thames St. Oamaru	01/5677	27 December 1901	Rev R. J. Porter
2185	28 December 1901	James Donald Mary Marshall	James Donald Mary Marshall 💍 1901/5084	Divorced Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	37 26	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 14 days	Residence of Mr N. S. Reddell, Tyne St. Oamaru	01/5676	28 December 1901	Rev R. J. Porter

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 1901. 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).