Intentions to Marry, 1912 Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840450, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1912 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Gisborne (1912a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1912b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1912c).

Page 666

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1912 Registrar Alexander Adam Main

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

3027

3 April 1912

John Cyril McLean
Amy Isabel Mahan

John Cyril McLean
Amy Isabel Mahan
💍 1912/3968

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Clerk

30
23

usual: Dunedin, present: Oamaru
Oamaru

2 weeks
23 years

In the Catholic Basilica at Oamaru

12/3806

3 April 1912

Rev. Henry Norman Woods

No	3027
Date of Notice	3 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Cyril McLean	Amy Isabel Mahan
	💍 1912/3968
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Clerk
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	usual: Dunedin, present: Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	2 weeks	23 years
Marriage Place	In the Catholic Basilica at Oamaru
Folio	12/3806
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. Henry Norman Woods

3028

4 April 1912

Samuel Henry Goodall
Daisy Maude Josephine Sandom

Samuel Henry Goodall
Daisy Maude Josephine Sandam
💍 1912/3970

Bachelor
Spinster

Foreman
Dressmaker

25
27

South Oamaru
Dunedin

35 years
27 years

at the house of Mr Samuel Henry Goodall, South Oamaru

12/3810

4 April 1912

Rev. William Wright

No	3028
Date of Notice	4 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Henry Goodall	Daisy Maude Josephine Sandom
BDM Match (98%)	Samuel Henry Goodall	Daisy Maude Josephine Sandam
	💍 1912/3970
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Foreman	Dressmaker
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	South Oamaru	Dunedin
Length of Residence	35 years	27 years
Marriage Place	at the house of Mr Samuel Henry Goodall, South Oamaru
Folio	12/3810
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Wright

3029

4 April 1912

Samuel Robinson
Mary Rawcliffe

Samuel Robinson
Mary Rawcliffe
💍 1912/7822

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Postmistress

24
30

Totara
Alma

24 years
30 years

In St Luke's Church, Oamaru

12/6126

4 April 1912

Rev. David Jamieson

No	3029
Date of Notice	4 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Robinson	Mary Rawcliffe
	💍 1912/7822
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Postmistress
Age	24	30
Dwelling Place	Totara	Alma
Length of Residence	24 years	30 years
Marriage Place	In St Luke's Church, Oamaru
Folio	12/6126
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Jamieson

3030

9 April 1912

Charles Edward Heenan
Williamina Hannah Jane Hewton

Charles Edward Heenan
Williamina Hannah Jane Hewton
💍 1912/4106

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
22

Ngapara
Ngapara

4 days
16 years

at the house of Mr David Hewton

12/3902

9 April 1912

Rev. Henry Sholto Bishop

No	3030
Date of Notice	9 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Heenan	Williamina Hannah Jane Hewton
	💍 1912/4106
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Ngapara	Ngapara
Length of Residence	4 days	16 years
Marriage Place	at the house of Mr David Hewton
Folio	12/3902
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. Henry Sholto Bishop

3031

9 April 1912

Norman Henry Ellis Maynard
Mary Bates

Norman Henry Ellis Maynard
Mary Bates
💍 1912/42

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Duties

25
26

present: Windsor, usual: Christchurch
Windsor

3 days
11 years

at the house of Mrs Janet Bates

12/3809

9 April 1912

Rev. James Standring

No	3031
Date of Notice	9 April 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Henry Ellis Maynard	Mary Bates
	💍 1912/42
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Duties
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	present: Windsor, usual: Christchurch	Windsor
Length of Residence	3 days	11 years
Marriage Place	at the house of Mrs Janet Bates
Folio	12/3809
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Standring

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 1908. 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).