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 499

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 1901 Registrar Alex Montgomery

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
21	9 March 1901	Arthur Clinch Annie Elizabeth Tomson	Arthur Clinch Annie Elizabeth Thomson 💍 1901/600	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic Servant	36 years 25 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 2 years	Registrar's office Timaru	01/1031		9 March 1901	Alex Montgomery, Timaru
22	11 March 1901	Robert Crerar Marion Henderson	Robert Crevar Marion Henderson 💍 1901/596	Bachelor Spinster	Cutter	26 years 25 years	Timaru Timaru	11 years 9 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr W Henderson Attenborough Timaru	01/1027		11 March 1901	Rev. Joseph White, Presbyterian Minister
23	12 March 1901	Ernest Henry Hodge Amy Louisa Butt	Ernest Henry Hodge Amy Louisa Butt 💍 1901/636	Bachelor Spinster	Assistant Draper General Servant	18 years 20 years	Timaru Timaru	18 years 20 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr Butt, Babington St, Timaru	01/1045	William Hodge, father; Martha Butt, mother	12 March 1901	Rev. George Burgess, Congregational Minister
24	16 March 1901	Robert Ester Anderson Alice Mary James	Robert Ester Anderson Alice Mary James 💍 1901/602	Bachelor Spinster	Ships Steward	22 years 21 years	Washdyke Washdyke	14 days 14 years	Registrar's office Timaru	01/1032		16 March 1901	Alex Montgomery, Timaru
25	19 March 1901	Samuel Keene Margaret Hannan	Samuel Keene Margrat Hannan 💍 1901/615	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	22 years 21 years	Timaru Timaru	22 years 15 months	Mrs George S. Keene's Dwellinghouse, Maori Hill, Timaru	01/1046		19 March 1901	Rev. Samuel Buchanan, Primitive Methodist Minister
26	22 March 1901	George Cowles Mary Ann Williams	George Cowles Mary Ann Williams 💍 1901/632	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	6 years 22 years	St Mary's English Church Timaru	01/1041		22 March 1901	Archdeacon H.W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman
27	23 March 1901	Henry Leonard Bradding Elizabeth Fanny Taplin	Henry Leonard Bradding Elizabeth Fanny Taplin 💍 1901/3507	Bachelor Spinster	Bridgeman N.Z. Railways Domestic Servant	25 years 25 years	Timaru Timaru	2 years 25 years	St Mary's English Church Timaru	01/3978		23 March 1901	Archdeacon H.W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman
28	28 March 1901	Sidney Riley Fickling Ann Elizabeth King	Sidney Riley Wilkes Ann Elizabeth King 💍 1901/616	Bachelor Spinster	Miller, deceased Dressmaker	18 years 19 years	Timaru Timaru	18 years 17 years	John King's dwellinghouse, Charles St, Timaru	01/1047	S. Riley Fickling, father; John King, father	28 March 1901	Rev. Samuel Buchanan, Primitive Methodist Minister
29	28 March 1901	Adolph Christian Poulsen Ann Nixon	Adolf Otto Christian Poulsen Ann Niven 💍 1901/2253	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	29 years 26 years	Timaru Dunedin	1 month 26 years	John Nixon's dwellinghouse, Frederick St, Dunedin	01/2695		28 March 1901	Rev. Wm Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister, Dunedin

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).