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 286

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar J. W. Matheson

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
233	24 April 1901	Galbraith Wratten Lillian Maude Pearce	Galbraith Wratten Lillian Maude Pearce 💍 1901/2064	Bachelor Spinster	Shopman	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 24 years	Wesleyan Church	01/2269		24 April 1901	Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan
234	24 April 1901	Arthur Henry Tompsett Emma Gertrude McVicar	Arthur Henry Tompsett Emma Gertrude McVicar 💍 1901/2153	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 22 years	House of Mrs. Frank Cole, Madras St.	01/2503		24 April 1901	Rev. H. Laws, Wesleyan
235	24 April 1901	James Geggie Murray Mabel May Meyers	James Geggie Murray Mabel May Meyers 💍 1901/5937	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Machinist	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 21 years	House of Mrs. Warren, Windmill Rd, Sydenham	01/2783		24 April 1901	Rev. J. Gown, Presbyterian
236	24 April 1901	Charles Woodham Elizabeth Rose Florence	Charles Woodham Florence Elizabeth Rose 💍 1901/2072	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 year	House of Mrs. Priest, Ensors Rd, Opawa	01/2776		24 April 1901	Rev. J. Gown, Presbyterian
237	24 April 1901	David Taylor Lucy Poor	David Taylor Lucy Spoor 💍 1901/2125	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic	29 18	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 14 days	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	01/2386	James Poor, father	24 April 1901	Registrar of Marriages, J. W. Matheson
238	24 April 1901	Owen Hensley Mary Alice Johnson	Owen Hensley Mary Alice Johnson 💍 1901/1988	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	24 27	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 24 years	St. Michael's Church	01/2417		24 April 1901	Rev. W. Averill, Anglican
239	26 April 1901	Quentin Campbell Manson Taylor Christina Isabella Young	Quentin Campbell Manson Taylor Christina Isabella Young 💍 1901/2062	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 26	Papanui Christchurch	26 years 23 years	Presbyterian Church, Papanui	01/2466		26 April 1901	Rev. W. Simpson, Presbyterian

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).