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 112

District of Motueka Quarter ending 31 March 1901 Registrar Joseph Foord Wilson

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
625	10 January 1901	William Frederick Augustus Ewers Wilhelmina Sophia Christina Siggelkow	William Frederick Augustus Ewers Wilhelmina Sophia Christina Liggelkow 💍 1901/382	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	29 20	Neudorf Neudorf	29 years 20 years	Lutheran Church, Upper Moutere	01/748	August Christian Siggelkow, father	10 January 1901	Reverend Johannes Carl George Thiel, Lutheran Minister
626	14 January 1901	John Atkins Eva Bond	John Atkins Eva Bond 💍 1901/381 John Atkins Eva Bond 💍 1901/381	Widower Widow	Hopgrower Dressmaker	58 52	Motueka Motueka	57 years 3 weeks	House of Mr. John Atkins, Motueka	01/746		14 January 1901	Reverend Robert Purcell Heall, Wesleyan Minister
627	15 January 1901	James Thomas Heath Florence Rebecca Bensemann	James Thomas Heath Florence Rebecca Bensemann 💍 1901/377	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	24 23	Pokororo Upper Moutere	24 years 23 years	House of Mr. John Diedrich Bensemann, Upper Moutere	01/742		15 January 1901	Reverend William George Baker, Minister Church of England
628	21 January 1901	Henry Ernest Goodman Edith Evelyn Mary Ann Williams	Henry Ernest Goodman Edith Evelyn Mary Ann Williams 💍 1901/380 Henry Ernest Goodman Edith Evelyn Mary Ann Williams 💍 1901/380	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	29 20	Motueka Pangatotara	29 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Motueka	01/744	Francis Williams, father	21 January 1901	Joseph Foord Wilson, Registrar
629	31 January 1901	George Henry Budden Betsy Askew	George Henry Budden Betsy Askew 💍 1901/6199	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Domestic Duties	28 31	Riwaka Riwaka	11 years 31 years	House of Mr. William Askew, Riwaka	01/747		31 January 1901	Reverend Robert Purcell Heall, Wesleyan Minister
630	2 February 1901	Frederick Arthur Palmer Mary Harvey Trewavas	Frederick Arthur Palmer Mary Harvey Trewavas 💍 1901/376 Frederick Arthur Palmer Mary Harvey Trewavas 💍 1901/376	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Chemist's assistant	37 32	Motueka Motueka	3 days 32 years	St. Thomas' Church, Motueka	01/741		2 February 1901	Reverend Thomas Johnston, Minister Church of England
631	9 February 1901	Frederick Arthur Inwood Jane Elizabeth Sharp	Frederick Arthur Inwood Jane Elizabeth Sharp 💍 1901/6198 Frederick Arthur Inwood Jane Elizabeth Sharp 💍 1901/6198	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	28 21	Motueka Motueka	28 years 3 months	Registrar's Office, Motueka	1901/745		9 February 1901	Joseph Foord Wilson, Registrar
632	15 February 1901	William Melville Robert Gibbs Elizabeth Heath	William Melville Robert Gibbs Elizabeth Heath 💍 1901/378 William Melville Robert Gibbs Elizabeth Heath 💍 1901/378	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	21 21	Pokororo Pokororo	6 years 21 years	Church of St. James, Ngatimoti	01/743		15 February 1901	Reverend William George Baker, Minister Church of England

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).