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 491

District of Temuka Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar Paget Nalty

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
5	2 April 1901	Cuthbert Sloan Jane Dugan	Cuthbert Shaw Jane Edgar 💍 1901/2204	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 24	Temuka Temuka	3 days 24 years	Presbyterian Church Temuka	01/2619	2 April 1901	John Dickson
6	13 April 1901	James Kellean Blanche A Genge		Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	27 21	Temuka Temuka	13 days 13 years	Church England Temuka	01/3954	13 April 1901	Thos Farley
7	17 April 1901	Chas Maine Eliza Timbrell		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 26	Winchester Winchester	3 days 26 years	Church England Winchester	01/3955	17 April 1901	Thos Farley
8	23 April 1901	David H. Orbell R. S. E. Buckhurst		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 27	Winchester Winchester	30 years 30 years	Church England Winchester	01/3958	23 April 1901	W. H. Orbell
9	29 April 1901	Thos Burnett Edith Buck	Thomas Burnett Elizabeth Buck 💍 1901/3462	Widower Spinster	Labourer	50 27	Temuka Temuka	27 years 27 years	Church England Temuka	01/3956	29 April 1901	Thos Farley
10	30 April 1901	F. T. South Lil M Opie		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 24	Winchester Winchester	3 days 8 years	Church England Winchester	01/3957	30 April 1901	Thos Farley
11	16 May 1901	W. L. Goodall E Eaglestone	Walter Lucas Goodall Ellenor Eaglestone 💍 1901/2207	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 20	Temuka Temuka	5 months 20 years	Pte Res of Mr Eaglestone Temuka	01/2622	16 May 1901	Wm Tinsley
12	23 May 1901	T. J. Hooper M Lewis		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 29	Temuka Temuka	3 years 25 years	Pte Res of John Hooper Temuka	01/2623	23 May 1901	Wm Tinsley
13	25 May 1901	A Washington Winfd Bell	Anthony Washington Winnifred Bell 💍 1901/2205	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 25	Temuka Temuka	7 years 25 years	Presbyterian Church Temuka	01/2620	25 May 1901	Jno Dickson
14	25 May 1901	L. A. Douglas R. L. Hiscoke		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Temuka Temuka	19 years 9 months	Presbyterian Church Temuka	01/2621	25 May 1901	Jno Dickson
15	4 June 1901	W. J. Smart C. A. Pearce		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 26	Waitohi Flat Waitohi Flat	26 years 26 years	Pte Res of George Smart Waitohi Flat	01/2674	4 June 1901	Josl Sharp
16	17 June 1901	W. F. Aspinall J. F. Winter		Widower Spinster	Solicitor	48 28	Temuka Temuka	20 years 5 years	Res of W F Aspinall Temuka	01/3959	17 June 1901	Thos Farley

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).