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 505

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar Alexander 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
65	1 October 1901	William Burgess Mary St. Heilers Maggie	William Burgess Mary St Heilers Haggie 💍 1901/4973	Bachelor Spinster	Slaughterman	26 years 29 years	Timaru Timaru	26 years 7 years	Roman Catholic Priory, Timaru	01/5391		1 October 1901	Rev. John Tubman, Roman Catholic Priest
66	1 October 1901	Andrew Rodgers Caroline Rebecca Ingram	Andrew Rodgers Caroline Rebecca Ingram 💍 1901/4987	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 years 14 years	Timaru Timaru	8 months 14 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr Ingram, Brown St, Timaru	01/5381	Rebecca Ingram, Mother	1 October 1901	Rev. George Burgess, Congregational Minister
67	12 October 1901	Thomas Scott Elizabeth McK Brown	Thomas Scott Elizabeth McLean 💍 1901/4977	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 years 28 years	Pareora Timaru	12 years 28 years	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	01/5394		12 October 1901	Rev. George Barclay, Presbyterian Minister
68	14 October 1901	Henry Bolden Edith Williams	Henry Bolden Edith Williams 💍 1901/4969	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	26 years 23 years	Waimataitai Waimataitai	3 years 15 months	Dwellinghouse of Rev. J. N. Buttle, Timaru	01/5387		14 October 1901	Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister
69	17 October 1901	Arthur Henry Chiles Mary Gardner	Arthur Henry Chiles Mary Gardner 💍 1901/5382	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic Servant	24 years 20 years	Timaru Timaru	10 years 6 years	Dwellinghouse of W. Wood, Wre St, Timaru	01/5989	Thomas Gardner, Father	17 October 1901	Rev. Samuel Buchanan, Primitive Methodist Minister
70	19 October 1901	Robert Peebles Ellen Curry	Robert Peebles Ellen Curry 💍 1901/4964	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 years 21 years	Timaru Timaru	6 years 21 years	Dwellinghouse Rev. Geo. Burgess, Timaru	01/5382		19 October 1901	Rev. George Burgess, Congregational Minister
71	1 November 1901	Robert Carr Bessie Rice	Robert Parr Bessie Rice 💍 1901/4986	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 years 25 years	Timaru Timaru	23 years 7 years	English Church (St. Marys), Timaru	01/5379		1 November 1901	Rev. Henry Williams, Church of England Clergyman
72	13 November 1901	Frank Taylor Edith Louisa Best	Frank Taylor Edith Louisa Best 💍 1901/4970	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 years 20 years	Timaru Timaru	7 years 20 years	Dwellinghouse of Charles Massey, North Street, Timaru	01/5388	Elizabeth Massey, Mother	13 November 1901	Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister

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).