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 329

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar J. W. A. [illegible]

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
512	27 September 1901	John Harbow May Smith	John Harborow Mary Louisa Smith 💍 1901/3816	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Dressmaker	23 24	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 24 years	House of Rev C. E. Ward, Cambridge Terrace, Christchurch	01/4327		27 September 1901	Rev C. E. Ward, Methodist
513	28 September 1901	Arthur David Robbins Eliza Ann Phillips	Arthur David Robbie Eliza Ann Phillips 💍 1901/4634	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Tailoress	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 3 years	House of Mr. J. J. Brice, High St, Christchurch			28 September 1901	Rev Dr. Drain, Presbyterian
514	30 September 1901	William Isaac McAnley Catherine C. O'Connor	William McArley Catherine O'Connor 💍 1901/4624	Bachelor Spinster	Ferryman Tailoress	24 19	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 7 years	Pro Cathedral, Boulevard West, Christchurch	01/5349	David G. O'Connor, Father	30 September 1901	Rev H. McYounde, Romanist
515	30 September 1901	John Whitford Norris Florence Hilda Norris	John Whitford Florence Hilda Norris 💍 1901/4687	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	21 18	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 5 years	House of Mr. Muntrow, Copawa	01/5292	Thomas Norris, Father	30 September 1901	Rev W. Lee, Wesleyan
516	30 September 1901	William George Smith Florence Harriet Heard	William George Smith Florence Harriet Heard 💍 1901/5459	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Agent Clerk	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 23 years	Holy Trinity Church	01/5466		30 September 1901	Rev W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
517	30 September 1901	Frederick Edward Keats Eliza Greaves	Frederick Albert Edward Keast Eliza Greaves 💍 1901/4673	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	24 years 21 years	Wesleyan Church, Springston	01/5229		30 September 1901	Rev J. W. Mather, Wesleyan
518	30 September 1901	Ernest Harold Birks Annie Palmerston Cobden	Ernest Harold Bowrah Diehl Annie Palmerston Cobden 💍 1901/3341	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	House of Mr. Milner, Harewood Rd	01/3843		30 September 1901	Rev H. Dawson, Wesleyan

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).