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 507

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
80	6 December 1901	Henry Martin Annie Hosking	Henry Martin Annie Hosking 💍 1901/4967	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic duties	22 22	Timaru Timaru	5 years 2 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr Pearson Avenue Road Timaru	01/5385	6 December 1901	Rev. George Burgess, Congregational Minister
81	17 December 1901	David Graham Watson Grace Clarke	David Graham Watson Grace Clarke 💍 1901/6205	Widower Spinster	Salesman Tailoress	32 28	Timaru Timaru	3 years 5 years	Presbyterian Church Timaru	01/5377	17 December 1901	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
82	19 December 1901	John Gillies Esmine Patience Healey	John Gillies Esmine Patience Healey 💍 1901/4984	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 22	Timaru Timaru	3 days 22 years	Dwellinghouse of Mrs Healey West Town Belt Timaru	01/5376	19 December 1901	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
83	24 December 1901	Abraham George Ennis Elizabeth Seyb	Abraham George Ennis Elizabeth Seyb 💍 1901/4968	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	22 22	Timaru Timaru	4 months 1 week	Dwellinghouse of Rev. Geo. Burgess Timaru	01/5386	24 December 1901	Rev. George Burgess, Congregational Minister
84	26 December 1901	Frederick Arthur Beggant Sarah Ann Smith	Frederick Arthur Bezzant Sarah Ann Smith 💍 1901/6206	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder Dressmaker	23 24	Timaru Timaru	3 days 6 years	St Mary's English Church Timaru	01/5380	26 December 1901	Archdeacon H. W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman
85	30 December 1901	George Swatman Wells Susan Easter Buckingham	George Swattman Wells Susan Easter Buckingham 💍 1902/1115	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic Servant	24 26	Timaru Timaru	24 years 2 years	Dwellinghouse of Rev. J. Newman Buttle Timaru	01/1184	31 December 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).