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 474

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 30 June 1907 Registrar Geo. J. Furby

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
41	6 April 1907	Chas Lewis Hopkins Annie Waters	Charles Lewis Hopkins Annie Waters 💍 1901/2215	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer None	34 26	Cust Ashley Bank	1 month 1 month	Church of England Ashley Bank	01/2608		6 April 1907	H E East
42	9 April 1907	Arthur Austin Joines Elizbth Agatha Hengeschwender	Arthur Austin Joines Elizabeth Agatha Nengeschwender 💍 1901/2218	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer None	21 23	Porters Pass Fernside	21 yrs 23 yrs	House of A. A. Hengeschwender Fernside	01/2612		9 April 1907	F. P. Fendall
43	12 April 1907	James Wilson Margaret Banks	James Wilson Margaret Banks 💍 1901/5930	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer None	34 34	Ashley Ashley	34 yrs 20 yrs	Presbyterian Church Ashley	01/2609		12 April 1907	D A Anderson
44	8 May 1907	Thos Leslie Flauss Alice Bartrum	Thomas Leslie Flaus Alice Bartrum 💍 1901/2212	Widower Spinster	Carpenter None	39 37	Rangiora Rangiora	1 month 37 yrs	House of F. B. Lane King St Rangiora	01/2607		8 May 1907	S. Barnett
45	15 May 1907	Martin Condon Mary Hannigan	Martin Condon Mary Hannigan 💍 1901/2216	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Platelayer None	32 19	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Church Rangiora	01/2610	Patrick Hannigan (Father)	15 May 1907	W. Hyland
46	30 May 1907	Albert Chas Cone Elsie Marion Burt	Albert Charles Cone Elsie Marion Burt 💍 1901/2217	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist None	26 21	Timaru Rangiora	2 mos 21 yrs	House of W A Burt Rangiora	01/2611		30 May 1907	W. B. Barry
47	31 May 1907	William John Beattie Susannah Chambers	William John Beattie Susannah Chambers 💍 1901/3449	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer None	32 22	Timaru Fernside	2 yrs 22 yrs	Church of England Fernside	01/3942		31 May 1907	F. P. Fendall

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).