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 271

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

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
134	13 March 1901	Thomas Joseph Chapple May Emily Batchelor	Thomas Joseph Chapple May Emily Batchelor 💍 1901/130	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 28	St. Albans Christchurch	5 years	Congregational Church	01/969		13 March 1901	Rev. J. Sarginson, Congregational
135	14 March 1901	Herbert Carter Roa Lydia Butler	Herbert Carter Eva Lydia Butler 💍 1901/554	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 21	Christchurch St. Albans	6 years	House of W. H. Butler, Edgeware Road, St. Albans	01/961		14 March 1901	Rev. W. Lee, Wesleyan
136	15 March 1901	Henry James Widdis Mellanie De Rohan Staunton	Henry James Wicks Mellanie De Rohan Staunton 💍 1901/1002	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	23 19	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years	House of Mr. H. Staunton, St. Asaph Street, Christchurch	01/940	Henry Staunton, Father	15 March 1901	C. E. Hard, Presbyterian
137	15 March 1901	George Edward Chisnall Rosina Maria Robinson	George Edward Chisnall Rosina Maria Robinson 💍 1901/2176	Bachelor Domestic	Bootmaker	27 26	St. Albans St. Albans	16 years 2 years	House of Mr. G. E. Chisnall, Clare Road, St. Albans	01/2570		15 March 1901	Rev. G. R. Ward, Methodist
138	15 March 1901	Frederick William Chambers Minnie Winter	Frederick William Chambers Minnie Winter 💍 1901/2179	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic	23 22	Sydenham Sydenham	15 years 15 years	House of Mr. R. Winter, Byron Street, Sydenham	01/2537		15 March 1901	Rev. H. Bull, Wesleyan
139	15 March 1901	John Burgess Barbour Margaret Fraser Barbour	John Burgess Margaret Fraser Barbour 💍 1901/393	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Dressmaker	26 31	Linwood Richmond	5 years 25 years	House of Mr. Barbour, Tay Street, Richmond	01/862		15 March 1901	Rev. F. Minshull, Presbyterian
140	16 March 1901	William Camps Mary Ann Stewart	William Campion Mary Ann Stewart 💍 1901/811 William Rennie Mary Alice Stewart 💍 1901/2601	Widower Divorced (absolute)	Farmer	40 33	Christchurch Christchurch	40 years 6 years	St. Michael's Church	01/957		16 March 1901	Rev. A. W. Averill, 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).