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 261

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1901 Registrar J. W. R. Vaudersee

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
75	12 February 1901	Benjamin Thomas James Matilda Hamilton	Benjamin Thomas James Matilda Hamilton 💍 1901/1023	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist Dressmaker	24 24	Christchurch Onslow St, St Albans	4 years 24 years	House of Mr. W. J. Hamilton	01/937	12 February 1901	Rev. C. R. Ward, P. Methodist
76	12 February 1901	William Lewis Morgan Selina Manifold	William Lewis Morgan Selina Manifold 💍 1901/540	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Domestic	31 25	Christchurch Durham St, Christchurch	3 days 20 years	Church of Christ	01/972	12 February 1901	Rev. S. Manifold, Church of Christ
77	13 February 1901	William Henry Simmons Nellie Olive Ollies	William Henry Simmons Hettie Oliver 💍 1901/475	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Machinist	23 23	Spreydon Spreydon	12 years 14 years	St. Mary's Church, Addington	01/878	13 February 1901	Rev. W. S. Bean, Anglican
78	14 February 1901	Alfred James Nicholls Greta Marion O'Callaghan	Alfred James Nicholls Greta Marion O'Callaghan 💍 1901/468	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 24	Christchurch St. Albans	6 years 24 years	St. Matthew's Church	01/895	14 February 1901	Rev. H. Williams, Anglican
79	16 February 1901	Ormond Wentworth Seaton Annie Hermione Gundersen	Ormond Wentworth Seaton Anna Hermine Gundersen 💍 1901/1007	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Tailoress	26 27	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 15 years	House of Mrs. J. Robinson, Ashfield Church	01/945	16 February 1901	Rev. J. J. Tolle, Baptist
80	16 February 1901	Walter Robert Kate Isabella Bloomfield	Walter Robert Bate Isabella Bloomfield 💍 1901/1006	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	23 21	Christchurch Belfast	3 days 3 days	House of Mrs. R. Etherington	01/944	16 February 1901	Rev. J. J. Tolle, Baptist
81	18 February 1901	Frederick Chapman Rose Franklin	Frederick Chapman Rose Franklin 💍 1901/505	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Servant	26 29	Christchurch Linwood	22 years 18 years	Church of Good Shepherd	01/909	18 February 1901	Rev. H. R. Ensor, Anglican

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).