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 470

District of Rakaia Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar J D Cameron

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
14	1 October 1901	Robert McKee Margaret Annie Anderson	Robert McKee Margaret Annie Anderson 💍 1901/4773	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Domestic	28 23	Methven Methven	6 years 4 years	at Private Residence of Mr Jas Anderson	01/5357	1 October 1901	John Crawford Westhook, Methven
15	22 October 1901	Frederick William Elmslie Margaret Unclich Shiold	Frederick William McKevrick Margaret Vucetich 💍 1901/4775	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	31 24	Pleasant Point Chertsey	3 days 10 years	at Private Residence of Mr J Unclich Chertsey	01/5360	22 October 1901	Patrick Johnston Riddle
16	22 October 1901	William Hood Francesca Rebecca Unclich	William Hood Francesca Vucetich 💍 1901/6204	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	39 26	Overdale Rakaia Chertsey	8 years 10 years	at Private Residence of Mr J Unclich Chertsey	01/5359	22 October 1901	Patrick Johnston Riddle
17	4 November 1901	James Malcolm Marion Gardiner	James Malcolm Marion Gardiner 💍 1901/4776	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	34 26	Pendarves Rakaia	4 months 10 years	Presbyterian Church Rakaia	01/5361	9 November 1901	Patrick Johnston Riddle
18	11 December 1901	Duncan McKellar Elizabeth Jane Ruddock	Duncan McMillan Elizabeth Jane Ruddock 💍 1901/4735	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	33 26	Dorie Southbridge	18 years 26 years	at Fieldmont Farm Southbridge Leeston	01/5331	11 December 1901	Robert W Jackson
19	16 December 1901	George William Aldridge Eliza Jane Chambers	George William Aldridge Eliza Jane Chambers 💍 1901/4777	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher Domestic Duties	25 18	Lyndhurst Lyndhurst	3 years 18 years	Church of England Methven	01/5362	17 December 1901	H H Mathias
20	20 December 1901	William Simpson Squire Alice Maude Peters	William Simpson Squire Alice Maud Peters 💍 1901/4778	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Duties	24 29	Parapara, Collingwood Methven	24 years 3 Months	Church of England, Methven	01/5363	23 December 1901	H H Mathias

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).