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 636

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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
168	6 April 1901	Henry Albert Smith Nellie Sullivan	Henry Albert Smith Nellie Sullivan 💍 1901/2407	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 20	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 1 year	In the house of Henry Thomas Smith, St Andrew Street	01/2739	John Sullivan, father of minor	6 April 1901	Revd Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
169	6 April 1901	Henry Augustus Adams Maude Tryphena Bishop	Henry Augustus Adams Maud Tryphena Bishop 💍 1901/2622	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	31 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 years	St Pauls Cathedral	01/2804		6 April 1901	Revd Edgar Ward, Church of England Minister
170	5 April 1901	Andrew Smith Millar Isabella Vetcher	Andrew Armit Millar Isabella Vetcher 💍 1901/909	Bachelor Divorcee	Iron Worker	38 30	Dunedin Mornington	1 year 25 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	01/2669	absolute dated 3rd of December 1900	8 April 1901	M. J. Call, Registrar of Marriages
171	9 April 1901	John Lambert Elizabeth Hannah Reed	John Lambert Elizabeth Hannah Reed 💍 1901/2254	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	28 26	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 12 years	In the house of Revd William Hewitson	01/2696		9 April 1901	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
172	10 April 1901	Benjamin John Peters Alice Maud Baskett	Benjamin John Peters Alice Maud Baskett 💍 1901/2377	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	24 25	St Clair St Clair	3 days 7 years	In the Presbyterian Church	01/2708		10 April 1901	Revd J. Sutton, Presbyterian Minister
173	10 April 1901	John Dryde Mary Jane Gilmore	John Pryde Mary Jane Gilmore 💍 1901/3592	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	26 22	Andersons Bay North East Harbour	26 years 2 months	In the house of Christopher Gilmore	01/4090		10 April 1901	Revd T. Cameron, Presbyterian Minister
174	10 April 1901	James Stoddart Lee Jessie Vial	James Stoddart Bee Jessie Vial 💍 1901/2370	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	29 24	Dunedin South Dunedin	3 days 4 months	In the house of Robert Findlay	01/2724		10 April 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).