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 075

District of Buller Quarter ending 30 September 1901 Registrar William George Douglas

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
23	14 July 1901	Walter Sydney Boes Mary Elizabeth Hills	Walter Sydney Boes Mary Elizabeth Mills 💍 1901/3149	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	21 16	Bradshaw's Terrace Charleston	2 years 16 years	Registrar's Office, Charleston	01/3655	Joseph Hills, father	14 July 1901	Registrar, Charleston
24	12 August 1901	Richard Stone Eliza Martin	William Harold Stone Eliza Martin 💍 1901/3126	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	21 19	Westport Westport	3 months 12 months	Registrar's Office, Westport	01/3648	George Martin, father	12 August 1901	Registrar, Buller
25	20 August 1901	Thomas McKnight Agnes Susannah Kerr	Thomas McNeight Agnes Susannah Kerr 💍 1901/3145	Bachelor Spinster	Music Teacher Music Teacher	24 24	Westport Westport	since birth 4 years	Residence of Mr. John Harris	01/3651		23 August 1901	Rev. John B. Dart
26	23 September 1901	Walter Francis Robinson Emily Young	Walter Francis Robinson Emily Young 💍 1901/3146	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor Domestic	31 23	Westport Westport	one week since birth	Residence of Mr. A. Young, Westport	01/3652		23 September 1901	Rev. John B. Dart
27	25 September 1901	John Vincent Gibbons Mary McLean	John Vincent Gibbins Mary McLean 💍 1901/3148	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	22 19	Cape Foulwind Cape Foulwind	3 years since birth	Residence of Mr. Francis McLean, Cape Foulwind	01/3654	Francis McLean, father	26 September 1901	Rev. John B. Dart
28	25 September 1901	John Samuel Duncan Sophia Maud Ehlers	John Samuel Duncan Sophia Maud Ehlers 💍 1901/3147	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	21 18	Westport Westport	18 months 15 years	Residence of Mr. Ehlers, Cobden Street, Westport	01/3653	Agnes Gertrude Ehlers, mother	26 September 1901	Rev. John B. Dart
29	25 September 1901	Stephen John Atkinson Zenobia Atkin	Stephen John Atkinson Zenobia Atkin 💍 1901/3137	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Compositor	22 25	Westport Westport	since birth 2 years	Residence of Mr. Walter Atkin, Westport	01/3649		28 September 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).