Intentions to Marry, 1905 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840429, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1905 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1905a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1905b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1905c).

Page 680

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1905 Registrar Robert Percy Ward

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

2406

9 January 1905

Alfred Richard Bothwell
Agnes Kate Grant

Alfred Richard Cassrell
Agnes Kate Grant
💍 1905/489

Bachelor
Spinster

Bicycle Engineer
Saleswoman

24
26

Oamaru
Oamaru

7 days
26 years

Residence of Mr David Grant, Humber Street, Oamaru

05/1486

9 January 1905

Rev W. Wright

No	2406
Date of Notice	9 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Richard Bothwell	Agnes Kate Grant
BDM Match (89%)	Alfred Richard Cassrell	Agnes Kate Grant
	💍 1905/489
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bicycle Engineer	Saleswoman
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	7 days	26 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr David Grant, Humber Street, Oamaru
Folio	05/1486
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Wright

2407

13 January 1905

Patrick Francis Nieper
Mary Stewart Farquharson

Patrick Francis Nieper
Mary Stewart Farquharson
💍 1905/468

Bachelor
Spinster

Dredgeman
Tailoress

28
29

Oamaru
Oamaru

3 days
3 days

Wesleyan Parsonage, Oamaru

05/1479

13 January 1905

Rev D. McNicoll

No	2407
Date of Notice	13 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Francis Nieper	Mary Stewart Farquharson
	💍 1905/468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dredgeman	Tailoress
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Parsonage, Oamaru
Folio	05/1479
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev D. McNicoll

2408

19 January 1905

Robert Currie
Jane Annie Robertson

Robert Currie
Jane Annie Robertson
💍 1905/479

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

26
30

Oamaru
Oamaru

14 days
30 years

Residence of Mr Francis Robertson, Ribble Street, Oamaru

05/1480

19 January 1905

Rev D. McNicoll

No	2408
Date of Notice	19 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Currie	Jane Annie Robertson
	💍 1905/479
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	26	30
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	14 days	30 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Francis Robertson, Ribble Street, Oamaru
Folio	05/1480
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev D. McNicoll

2409

24 January 1905

Frank William Dawson
Ann Eliza Jones

Frank William Dawson
Anne Eliza Jones
💍 1905/6519

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Seller

29
29

Oamaru
Oamaru

3 days
29 years

St Luke's Church, Oamaru

05/1602

24 January 1905

Rev. Archdeacon Gould

No	2409
Date of Notice	24 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank William Dawson	Ann Eliza Jones
BDM Match (97%)	Frank William Dawson	Anne Eliza Jones
	💍 1905/6519
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Seller
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	29 years
Marriage Place	St Luke's Church, Oamaru
Folio	05/1602
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Archdeacon Gould

2410

24 January 1905

Randolph Stewart Campbell
Johanna Augusta Emmeline Blodorn

Randolph Stewart Campbell
Johanna Augusta Emmeline Blodorn
💍 1905/485

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

35
18

Oamaru
Kakanui

4 years
13 months

Wesleyan Manse, Oamaru

05/1481

Henry Ferdinand Somily Blodorn, Father

24 January 1905

Rev D. McNicoll

No	2410
Date of Notice	24 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Randolph Stewart Campbell	Johanna Augusta Emmeline Blodorn
	💍 1905/485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	35	18
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Kakanui
Length of Residence	4 years	13 months
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Manse, Oamaru
Folio	05/1481
Consent	Henry Ferdinand Somily Blodorn, Father
Date of Certificate	24 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev D. McNicoll

2411

28 January 1905

Robert John Thompson
Elizabeth Eleanor Adair

Robert John Thompson
Elizabeth Thomas Adair
💍 1905/491

Bachelor
Spinster

School Teacher

29
33

Oamaru
Oamaru

6 weeks
4 months

Residence of Mr Henry Robinson Mackintosh, Wansbeck Street, Oamaru

05/1488

28 January 1905

Rev J. Standring

No	2411
Date of Notice	28 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert John Thompson	Elizabeth Eleanor Adair
BDM Match (85%)	Robert John Thompson	Elizabeth Thomas Adair
	💍 1905/491
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School Teacher
Age	29	33
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	6 weeks	4 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Henry Robinson Mackintosh, Wansbeck Street, Oamaru
Folio	05/1488
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Standring

2412

3 February 1905

Samuel Alexander McLean Baxter
Mary Portis

Samuel Alexander McLean Baxter
Mary Portis
💍 1905/486

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Laundress

26
28

Oamaru
Lorne, Oamaru

3 days
28 years

Residence of Mr Richard Portis, Lorne

05/1452

3 February 1905

Rev D. McNicoll

No	2412
Date of Notice	3 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Alexander McLean Baxter	Mary Portis
	💍 1905/486
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Laundress
Age	26	28
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Lorne, Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	28 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Richard Portis, Lorne
Folio	05/1452
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev D. McNicoll

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).