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 336

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar J. W. Mathieson

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
549	1 October 1901	Walter John Kielder Eleanor Neale	Walter John Aburn Eva Eleanor Neale 💍 1901/4671	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Dressmaker	26 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 7 years	House of Mr. I. Neale, Port Belt, Christchurch	01/5277	21 October 1901	Rev. G. Meanfield, Church of Christ
550	1 October 1901	John Thomas Kielder Edith Ann Toomey	John Thomas Boyer Edith Ann Toombs 💍 1901/5376	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 23	Christchurch South Belt, Christchurch	8 years 18 years	House of Mr. G. Toomey, South Belt, Christchurch	01/5983	21 October 1901	Rev. C. Porter, Wesleyan
551	1 October 1901	Joseph Watson Kinnie Janet Law	Joseph Watson Kime Janet Law 💍 1901/4690	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 28	Christchurch Christchurch	28 years 16 years	Wesleyan Church	01/5295	21 October 1901	Rev. H. Haslam, Wesleyan
552	1 October 1901	John James Piffer Christina Dandy Niven	John James Pepper Christina Emily Niven 💍 1901/4864	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Laundress	24 25	Papanui Christchurch	14 years 20 years	Presbyterian Church	01/5266	22 October 1901	Rev. J. Simpson, Presbyterian
553	1 October 1901	Thomas Lamont Johnston Elizabeth Ann Holinson	Thomas Lamont Johnston Elizabeth Anne Robinson 💍 1901/5461	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	28 29	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 27 years	St. Pauls Church, Cashel St., Christchurch	01/5948	22 October 1901	Rev. F. Elmslie, Presbyterian
554	1 October 1901	Leonard Brannan Hart Emily Ada Fletcher	Leonard Brannan Hart Emily Ada Fletcher 💍 1901/4681	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	27 28	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 28 years	St. Michaels Church	01/5748	22 October 1901	Rev. A. W. Averill, Anglican
555	1 October 1901	Robert Charles Wallace Elizabeth Jane Mildred Brown	Robert Charles Wallace Elizabeth Jane Mildred Brown 💍 1901/4708	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	27 26	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 26 years	St. Lukes Church	01/5289	22 October 1901	Rev. A. C. Lingard, 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).