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 073

District of Buller Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar William George Sufflay

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
14	6 April 1901	William Denks Mary Ellen Fraser	William Danks Mary Ellen Green 💍 1901/1866 William Jenkins Mary Shanks 💍 1901/1287	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Miner Domestic	22 19	Westport Westport	3 days 3 days	Wesleyan Church, Westport	01/2278	John Fraser, Father	6 April 1901	Rev. R. Hills
15	18 April 1901	Charles William Baldwin Margaret Fraser	Charles William Baldwin Margaret Fraser 💍 1901/1865	Bachelor Spinster	Wharf Labourer Domestic	32 20	Westport Westport	2 years 10 years	Residence of Walter Marshall Fraser, Queen Street, Westport	01/2277	Walter M. Fraser, Father	18 April 1901	Rev. J. Hall
16	24 April 1901	Abraham Freeman Hannah Eliza Christy	Thomas Graham Freeman Hannah Eliza Christy 💍 1901/1868	Widower Divorced	Shipwright Domestic	65 41	Westport Westport	9 years 13 years	Wesleyan Church, Westport	01/2281		24 April 1901	Rev. R. Hall
17	24 April 1901	James Bourke Lucy Howard	James Bourke Lucy Howard 💍 1901/1869	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	26 21	Addison's Nine Mile Road, Westport	2 years Since birth	Residence of Jas. Howard, Nine Mile Road, Westport	01/2283		24 April 1901	Rev. J. R. Dart
18	15 May 1901	Samuel Hewdon Elizabeth Williams	Samuel Murdon Elizabeth Williams 💍 1901/6069	Bachelor Widow	Engine Fitter Domestic	40 45	Westport Westport	6 months 25 years	Wesleyan Church, Westport	01/2282		15 May 1901	Rev. R. P. Keall
19	25 May 1901	John Raynor Dart Nellie Zealand Boase	John Raynor Dart Ellen Zealand Boase 💍 1901/830	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy Orders Domestic	42 35	Westport Reefton	4 months 3 days	St. Stephen's Anglican Church, Reefton	01/2322		25 May 1901	Rt. Rev. C. O. Mules
20	25 May 1901	Patrick Henry Beirne Edith Broadfoot	Patrick Henry Beirne Edith Broadfoot 💍 1901/1870	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Domestic	24 23	Westport Westport	3 days 6 weeks	Residence of Mrs. Broadfoot, Westport	01/2284		25 May 1901	Rev. J. R. Dart
21	25 June 1901	Andrew Marshall Ellen Cissie Jones	Andrew Marshall Ellen Cissie Jones 💍 1901/1867	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Domestic	42 33	Westport Westport	13 years 6 years	Registrar's Office, Westport	01/2279		25 June 1901	Registrar, Buller
22	26 June 1901	Charles John Low Ellen Rebecca Bourke	Charles John Low Ellen Rebecca Bourke 💍 1901/123	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic	24 22	Addison's Addison's	Since birth 6 months	Residence of George Low, Cobden Street, Westport	01/2280		26 June 1901	Rev. J. Hall

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).