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 342

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar Frederick William Mansfield

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
584	5 November 1901	Richard Philip Earl Edith Jane Yelland	Richard Philip Earl Edith Jane Yelland 💍 1901/5449	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 25	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 25 years	Residence of William Yelland, School Road, Bromley	01/5957	5 November 1901	Rev. John Gow
585	7 November 1901	Thomas Faull Annie Maria Gower	Thomas Faull Annie Maria Gower 💍 1901/4759	Bachelor Widow	Master Mariner	40 45	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	01/5185	7 November 1901	Deputy Registrar
586	7 November 1901	Francis John Brady Ellen Gertrude Fitzgibbon	Francis John Brady Ellen Gertrude Fitzgibbon 💍 1901/4705	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 21	Christchurch Loburn, Rangiora	4 days 21 years	St. Mary's Church, Manchester St, Christchurch	01/5286	7 November 1901	Rev. M. J. Marnane
587	7 November 1901	Arnold Wall Curnow Elsie Kent Monro	Arnold Wall Elsie Kent Monro Curuow 💍 1901/4709	Bachelor Spinster	Professor of English	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 22 years	St. Luke's Church, Christchurch	01/5290	7 November 1901	Ven. Arch. Lingard
588	9 November 1901	David Andrew Syme Margaret Ellen Brown	David Andrew Syme Margaret Ellen Brown 💍 1901/4683	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	01/5220	9 November 1901	Rev. A. W. Averill
589	11 November 1901	Michael Little Elliot Effie Annie Barnes	Michael Little Elliot Effie Annie Barnes 💍 1901/5447	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 month	St. Luke's Church, Yaldhurst	01/5955	11 November 1901	Rev. W. J. P. Winter
590	11 November 1901	Sidney Herbert Harrow Elizabeth Kennedy	Sidney Herbert Harrow Elizabeth Kennedy 💍 1901/4727 John Henry Dufty Elizabeth Kennedy 💍 1902/710	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	Residence of Mr. G. S. Harrow, Colombo Street, Spreydon	01/5323	11 November 1901	Rev. W. G. Parsonson

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).