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 466

District of Rakaia Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar J Thompson

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
4	1 April 1901	William James Armstrong Letitia McCarton	William James Armstrong Letitia McCarten 💍 1901/2282	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	25 21	Raglan Auckland Highbank	5 days at Rakaia 2 years Methven	Presbyterian Church Methven	01/2603	15 April 1901	Revd J. B. Westbrook Methven
5	19 April 1901	Walter William Goodwin Agnes Ann Harrison	Walter William Goodwin Agnes Ann Harrison 💍 1901/4774	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	28 28	Lyndhurst Lyndhurst	6 months Lyndhurst 11 years Lyndhurst	Private Residence of Mr Wm Drummond Lyndhurst	01/5358	19 April 1901	Revd Patrick Johnston Riddle Rakaia
6	15 May 1901	John Warren Champion Mary Elizabeth Leaman	John Warren Champion Mary Elizabeth Leaman 💍 1901/2201	Bachelor Widow	Hotel Porter Domestic Duties	24 24	Rakaia Rakaia	4 months Rakaia 20 years Rakaia	Private Residence of Mr Leaman Rakaia	01/2601	15 May 1901	Revd Patrick Johnston Riddle Rakaia
7	29 May 1901	Thomas Edward Austin Annie Thompson	Thomas Edward Austin Annie Thompson 💍 1901/2284 Thomas Henry Pilbrow Annie Thompson 💍 1901/6025	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Domestic	23 22	Rakaia Rakaia	6 years Rakaia 1 month Rakaia	Private Residence of Mr Thompson Rakaia	01/2605	29 May 1901	Revd Patrick Johnston Riddle RAKAIA
8	4 June 1901	Mitchell Hume Isabella Adelaide Stott	Mitchell Hume Isabella Adelaide Scott 💍 1901/2283	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Duties	30 26	Orari Methven	3 days 4 years Methven	Presbyterian Church Methven	01/2604	4 June 1901	Revd J B Westbrook Methven
9	25 June 1901	William Tobin Sarah Murphy	William Tobin Norah Murphy 💍 1901/5445 William Cowlin Catherine Murphy 💍 1901/2270 William Tait Elizabeth Murphy 💍 1901/5001	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Duties	28 26	Fairfield Rakaia	3 days Rakaia 6 months Methven	Roman Catholic Church Methven	01/5953	25 June 1901	Revd James Joseph O'Donnell Ashburton

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).