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 151

District of Reefton Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar Axel Astenbeck

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
22	10 September 1901	Frederick Smith Alice Maud Armstrong	Frederick Smith Alice Maud Armstrong 💍 1901/3152	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic duties	25 22	Reefton Reefton	3 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Reefton		Alice Mary Armstrong, Mother	10 September 1901	Jas. P. Hickson
23	15 October 1901	Thomas Plaskett Jane Kerr	Thomas Plaskett Jane Kerr 💍 1901/4550	Widower Widow	Farmer Domestic duties	66 61	Reefton Reefton	29 years 3 days	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Reefton	01/5720		15 October 1901	A. Astenbeck, Registrar
24	24 October 1901	Michael Stephen O'Malley Catherine Gallagher	Michael Stephen O'Malley Catherine Gallagher 💍 1901/4527	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic duties	29 21	Reefton Cronadun	2 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Reefton	01/5721		24 October 1901	Jas. P. Hickson
25	30 October 1901	Alfred Thomas Duncan Mary Jane Morris	Alfred Thomas Duncan Mary Jane Morris 💍 1901/4528	Widower Spinster	Miner Domestic duties	32 31	Reefton Reefton	3 days 7 months	Residence of John James Morris Reefton	01/5722		30 October 1901	Jas. P. Hickson
26	11 November 1901	Albert Harold Lawn Harriet Noble	Albert Harold Tawn Harriet Noble 💍 1901/4529	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser Domestic duties	23 23	Reefton Reefton	12 years 5 years	St. Stephen's Church (Ch. of England) Reefton	01/5723		11 November 1901	Herbert J. York
27	3 December 1901	Thomas Hodgson Elizabeth Banks	Thomas Hodgson Elizabeth Banks 💍 1901/4530	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Merchant Domestic duties	32 27	Reefton Reefton	about 8 years about 15 years	Residence of Thos. Discon, Main St. Reefton	01/5724		3 December 1901	Robert Stewart
28	27 December 1901	Henry Shaw Elizabeth Jane Potter	Hendry Shaw Elizabeth Jane Potter 💍 1901/4531	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic duties	24 23	Reefton Reefton	2 years 23 years	Salvation Army Barracks Reefton	01/5725		27 December 1901	John Ward

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).