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 476

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 30 September 1901 Registrar Geo. F. 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
50	28 June 1901	George Frizzell Florence Kate Herdman	George Frizzell Florence Kate Herdman 💍 1901/3469	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer None	30 19	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar	01/3945		12 July 1901	G. F. Furby, Registrar
51	12 July 1901	John Thomas Leecham Annie Milne	John Thomas Perham Annie Milne 💍 1901/3478	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman None	34 35	Birch Hill Fernside	2 months 20 years	Roman Catholic Church, Rangiora	01/3948		12 July 1901	W. Hyland
52	30 August 1901	John Stalker Margaret Petrie	John Stalker Margaret Petrie 💍 1901/3476	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer None	31 24	Woodend Woodend	30 years 24 years	Church of England, Woodend	01/3946		30 August 1901	J. Holland
53	7 September 1901	Alexander Vallance Frances Mary Skudder	Alexander Vallance Frances Mary Skudder 💍 1901/3477	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer None	32 24	Mount Grey Downs Ashley	32 years 19 years	House of Thomas Skudder, Ashley	01/3947		7 September 1901	D. Anderson
54	16 September 1901	Thomas Harper Olivia O'Roarke	Thomas Harper Olivia O'Rourke 💍 1901/3458	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dress-maker	31 29	Kaiapoi Fernside	31 years 2 weeks	Church of England, Fernside	01/3944		16 September 1901	F. P. Fendall
55	17 September 1901	John Thomas Mullen Mary Ann Margaret Camsell	John Thomas Hullen Mary Ann Margaret Counsell 💍 1901/3479	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer None	29 21	Woodend Woodend	12 months 21 years	Roman Catholic Church, Rangiora	01/3949		17 September 1901	W. Hyland
56	24 September 1901	Benjamin Waller Ethel Annie Bailey	Benjamin Waller Ethel Annie Bailey 💍 1901/4839	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer None	26 19	Loburn Ashley	26 years 19 years	Presbyterian Church, Loburn	01/5703	Robert Bailey (Father)	24 September 1901	A. Doull

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).