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 350

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
639	4 December 1901	Richard John Sunderland Alice Maud O'Farrell	Richard John Sunderland Alice Maud O'Farrell 💍 1901/5451	Widower Spinster	Baker	55 33	Christchurch Christchurch	35 years 33 years	Residence of Mr. H. G. Day, Long Street, Woolston	01/5959		4 December 1901	Rev. John Gow
640	5 December 1901	Stephen Nixon Alice White	Stephen Nixon Alice White 💍 1901/5389	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 5 months	Residence of Mrs. Nixon, 16, Chester St., Christchurch	01/5973		5 December 1901	Rev. Jno. Elmslie
641	5 December 1901	John David Butler Emily Dorothy Coxon	John David Butler Emily Dorothy Coxon 💍 1902/820	Bachelor Spinster	Stevedore	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 24 years	St. Mark's Church, Opawa	01/1023		5 December 1901	Rev. G. J. Cholmondeley
642	5 December 1901	Frederick Charles Gordon Oliver Sarah Elizabeth Ann Whitford	Frederick Charles Gordon Olliver Sarah Elizabeth Ann Whitford 💍 1901/4689	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	20 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 3 weeks	Wesleyan Parsonage, Harper Street, Sydenham	01/5294	Jane Susanna Oliver, mother. Mary Whitford, mother	5 December 1901	Rev. William Lee
643	6 December 1901	Daniel Peter Hendricksen Florence Anne Elizabeth Burgess	Daniel Peter Hendrickson Florence Anne Elizabeth Burgess 💍 1901/5392	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 7 days	St. Paul's Church, Christchurch	01/5976	William George Burgess, father	6 December 1901	Rev. John Elmslie
644	9 December 1901	Walter Hammill Messenger Ada Manks	Walter Hannivell Messenger Ada Manks 💍 1901/5374	Widower Spinster	Bacon curer	27 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 25 years	St. Andrew's Church, Christchurch	01/5981		9 December 1901	Rev. John Mackenzie
645	9 December 1901	Isaac Butterfield Edith Jane Moody	Isaac Butterfield Edith Jane Moody 💍 1901/105	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	28 years 10 months	Church of England, Avonside, Christchurch	01/5210		9 December 1901	Rev. Wm. J. Pascoe

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).