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 304

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1901 Registrar J. Markerson

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
360	1 July 1901	Maurice Francis Johnstone Alice Fox	Maurice Francis Johnstone Alice Fox 💍 1901/3309	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	23 26	Christchurch Christchurch	10 days 20 years	St. Michaels Church	01/3818	1 July 1901	Rev. B. Macnie, Anglican
361	1 July 1901	Charles Henry Phillips Caroline Ryan	Charles Henry Phillips Caroline Ryan 💍 1901/3299	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	38 30	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 7 years	St. Lukes Church	01/3809	1 July 1901	Archd. Lingard, Anglican
362	1 July 1901	Charles Houston Restall Marian Eliza Wise	Charles Johnston Restall Marian Eliza Wise 💍 1901/3311	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 22 years	St. Michaels Church	01/3820	1 July 1901	Rev. A. W. Macnie, Anglican
363	2 July 1901	James Lecomte Bennett Leya Grace Robinson	James Lacon Bennett Lena May Robinson 💍 1901/3310	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	32 35	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 years	St. Michaels Church	01/3819	2 July 1901	Rev. A. W. Macnie, Anglican
364	2 July 1901	David Alexander Murray Emma Ripley	David Alexander Murray Emma Eliza Ryde 💍 1901/3899	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Domestic	30 26	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 2 years	St. Andrews Manse	01/4413	2 July 1901	Rev. J. Mackenzie, Presbyterian
365	2 July 1901	William Charles Thomas Fay Mary Jane Stoddart	William Charles Thomas Gay Mary Jane Hodge 💍 1901/3468	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Dressmaker	27 24	Sydenham Timaru	24 years 23 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	01/3963	2 July 1901	Rev. J. H. Buttle, Wesleyan
366	2 July 1901	Henry Cate Vera Amelia Stoddart	Henry Cale Dora Amelia Stoddart 💍 1901/3834	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 25	Christchurch House of Mrs. Stoddart, North Street, St. Albans	1 week 3 months	House of Mrs. Stoddart, North Street, St. Albans	01/4318	2 July 1901	Rev. H. Williams, Anglican
367	3 July 1901	Richard Thomas Wheeler Louisa Tate	Richard Thomas Wheeler Louisa Tate 💍 1901/3291	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Dressmaker	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 7 years	Registrar's Office	01/3757	3 July 1901	Registrar, J. Markerson

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).