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 622

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1901 Registrar William Joseph Hall

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
72	20 February 1901	John Mercer Agnes Grey Lawson	John Meecer Agnes Gray Lawson 💍 1901/750	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the house of Revd. Dr. William Bannerman, Roslyn	01/1186		20 February 1901	Revd. Dr. W. Bannerman, Presbyterian Minister
73	21 February 1901	Michael Cahill Susan Kerin	Michael Cahill Susan Kerin 💍 1901/770	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	55 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 8 years	In St. Joseph's Cathedral	01/1158		21 February 1901	Revd. P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
74	21 February 1901	Michael Butler Margaret Allan	Michael Bulter Margaret Allen 💍 1901/771 Michael Joseph Keogh Margaret Sullivan 💍 1901/722	Bachelor Spinster	Tea Blender	23 years 21 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	20 years 5 months	In St. Patrick's Church	01/1160		21 February 1901	Revd. James Coffey, Roman Catholic Priest
75	22 February 1901	Alfred James Edginton Rhyna Gertrude Rowe	Alfred James Edginton Rhyna Gertrude Rowe 💍 1901/667	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	21 years 17 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 15 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	01/1096	James Rowe, father of minor	22 February 1901	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
76	23 February 1901	Frederick Brebner Ellen Jane Milligan	Frederick Brebner Ellen Jane Milligan 💍 1901/692	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	37 years 25 years	South Dunedin Caversham	3 years 16 years	In the house of Thomas James Milligan	01/1126		23 February 1901	Revd. W. A. Sinclair, Wesleyan Minister
77	25 February 1901	Edward Rawlins Birch Amy Dorothea Carvosso	Edward Rawlins Birch Amy Dorothea Carvosso 💍 1901/668	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	20 years 20 years	Caversham St. Clair	20 years 3 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	01/1097	Henry Birch, father of minor; David Carvosso, father of minor	25 February 1901	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
78	25 February 1901	David Ross Paterson Isabella Mary Alison Moore	David Ross Paterson Isabella Mary Alison Moore 💍 1901/723	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 years 24 years	South Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 8 years	In the house of Alexander Marshall Paterson	01/1133		25 February 1901	Revd. Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian 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).