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 501

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar Alexr 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
30	1 April 1901	Arthur Bedingpah Florence Lydia Shears		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 years 27 years	Timaru Timaru	2 years 20 years	Dwellinghouse of William Shears, South St, Timaru	01/2621		1 April 1901	Rev George Burgess, Congregational Minister
31	2 April 1901	William Bishop Annie Coy	William Bishop Annie Cox 💍 1901/2210	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	24 years 30 years	Timaru Timaru	24 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Timaru	01/2625		2 April 1901	Alexr Montgomery, Registrar
32	2 April 1901	John Wash Longman Mary Campbell Futterle	John Walter Longman Mary Campbell Fullerton 💍 1901/2482	Bachelor Spinster	Groom & Gardener	28 years 26 years	Timaru Port Chalmers	15 months 26 years	Residence of Archibald Huddleston, Highcliffe, Timaru	01/2928		2 April 1901	Rev. E. C. Tennent, Presbyterian Minister
33	10 April 1901	Herbert Maude Perty Mildred Bailey	Herbert Maude Roxby Mildred Dailey 💍 1901/3484	Bachelor Spinster	Draper's Asst.	36 years 25 years	Timaru Timaru	4 days 12 months	St. Mary's Church, Timaru	01/3979		10 April 1901	Archdeacon H. F. Harper, Church of England Clergyman
34	16 April 1901	William John Harding Hannah Fleming	William John Harding Hannah Fleming 💍 1901/2239	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 years 25 years	Timaru Timaru	10 years 7 months	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	01/2632		16 April 1901	Rev J. Tubman, Roman Catholic Priest
35	26 April 1901	Thomas William Ker Isabella Christie	Thomas William Ker Isabella Christie 💍 1901/2222	Bachelor Spinster	Wood Turner Weaver	27 years 29 years	Timaru Timaru	8 years 8 years	Dwellinghouse of Mrs Christie, Bank St, Timaru	01/2629		26 April 1901	Rev. Robert Mackie, Presbyterian Minister
36	4 May 1901	Robert John Barkley Annie Maud Habard	Robert John Bartley Annie Maud Huband 💍 1901/2242	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic Servant	21 years 19 years	Timaru Timaru	21 years 19 years	Dwellinghouse of George Habard, Wilson St, Timaru	01/2635	George Habard, father of bride	4 May 1901	Rev. J. Nevin Buttle, Wesleyan Minister
37	7 May 1901	Richard Edgar Mundy Annie Attwell	Herbert Edgar Mundy Annie Attwell 💍 1901/2211	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer General Servant	39 years 26 years	Gleniti Timaru	5 years 3 days	Registrar's Office, Timaru	01/2626		7 May 1901	Alexander Montgomery, Registrar
38	15 May 1901	Henry Barratt Annie Campbell	Henry Barrett Annie Campbell 💍 1901/2233	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 years 26 years	Upper Otaio Upper Otaio	2 years 20 years	Dwellinghouse of John Campbell, Upper Otaio	01/2630		15 May 1901	Rev Robt Mackie, Presbyterian Minister
39	16 May 1901	Alfred John Woods Elizabeth Ann Neal	Alfred James Woods Elizabeth Ann Rebecca Neal 💍 1901/2213	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	21 years 18 years	Timaru Timaru	4 days 4 days	Registrar's Office, Timaru	01/2627	George Neal, father of bride	16 May 1901	Alexander Montgomery, Registrar

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).