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 344

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
598	15 November 1901	John Cecil Angus Ada Mary Scott	John Cecil Angus Ada Mary Scott 💍 1901/109	Bachelor Spinster	Publisher's Assistant	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	31 years 22 years	Registrar's Office	01/5191		15 November 1901	Deputy Registrar
599	15 November 1901	Bernard Hackett Louie Elizabeth Tester	Bernard Hackett Louie Elizabeth Tester 💍 1901/101	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	36 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 18 months	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	01/5189		15 November 1901	Deputy Registrar
600	15 November 1901	William John Mathews Mary Jane Topham	William John Mathews Mary Jane Topham 💍 1901/4692	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 27	Christchurch Christchurch	29 years 18 years	Residence of Mr. G. M. Topham, Main Road, Lincoln	01/5298		15 November 1901	Rev. J. M. Thomson
601	16 November 1901	Charles Foster Cooke Madeline Luke	Charles Foster Cooke Magdeline Luke 💍 1901/90	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	18 18	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 18 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	01/5188	Emma Cooke, Mother; Mary Luke, Mother	16 November 1901	Deputy Registrar
602	18 November 1901	George Thomas Burnip Charlotte Mary Wagstaff	George Thomas Burnip Charlotte Mary Wagstaff 💍 1901/108	Divorcee Widow	Boilermaker	44 37	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	01/5190		18 November 1901	Deputy Registrar
603	18 November 1901	Harry Wallace Clarke May Button	Harry Wallace Clarke May Button 💍 1901/4697	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	23 30	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 30 years	Baptist Church, Oxford Terrace, Christchurch	01/5302		18 November 1901	Rev. J. J. Doke
604	18 November 1901	William Henry Thomas Allwright Annie Wilson Wallace	John Henry Thomas Allwright Annie Wilson Wallace 💍 1901/5381	Bachelor Spinster	Postal Clerk	27 30	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 8 years	Residence of Mr. W. J. Larcombe, off Park Road, Linwood	01/5970		18 November 1901	Rev. Dr. John Elmslie

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).