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 191

District of Greymouth Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar J. M. Sheath

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
8	9 April 1901	Augustus Henry Arnold Sharpe Selina Rose Jones	Augustus Henry Arnold Thorps Helena Ann Jones 💍 1901/2048	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Domestic	24 19	Hokitika Hokitika	12 years 12 years	Salvation Army Barracks, Hokitika	01/2351	Emma Jones, Mother	9 April 1901	John Nash, Adjutant
9	10 April 1901	John Thompson Florence Louisa Chambers	John Thompson Kinsella Florence Louisa Chambers 💍 1901/2030	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	27 24	Blackball Stafford	22 years 22 years	Anglican Church, Stafford	01/2360		10 April 1901	A. E. Pettit
10	10 April 1901	Charles Schubert Ellen Toffery	Charles Pfahlert Ellen Shaffrey 💍 1901/2049	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic	25 23	Kanieri Hokitika	23 years 23 years	Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika	01/2352		10 April 1901	A. F. O'Callaghan
11	12 April 1901	Paul Americh Rose Goodman	Paul Arnerich Rose Goodwin 💍 1901/3227	Widower Widow	Miner Domestic	49 40	Goldsborough Goldsborough	20 years 21 years	Roman Catholic Church, Goldsborough	01/3713		12 April 1901	A. F. O'Callaghan
12	26 April 1901	John Boyd Talmina Mamorini	John Boyd Malerina Masciorini 💍 1901/3228 John Boyd Emily Sadd 💍 1901/3102	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	22 20	Rimu Goldsborough	22 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Church, Stafford	01/3714		26 April 1901	A. F. O'Callaghan
13	27 May 1901	John Lovelock Elizabeth Steele	John Lincoln Elizabeth Steele 💍 1901/2051	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic Duties	67 65	Rimu Rimu	16 years 16 years	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	01/2354		27 May 1901	J. M. Sheath, Registrar
14	8 June 1901	Humphrey Kirkbride Grace Wilson	Henry Beckwith Forster Grace Wilson 💍 1901/2050	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Domestic	27 26	Dillmanstown Rimu	5 years 5 years	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	01/2353		8 June 1901	J. M. Sheath, Registrar
14	14 June 1901	Frederick Deecke Wilhelmena Deecke	Frederick Duske Wilhelmena Duske 💍 1901/2009	Bachelor Widow	Miner Domestic Duties	71 66	Hokitika Hokitika	22 years 22 years	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	01/2355		14 June 1901	J. M. Sheath, Registrar

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).