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 638

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
182	16 April 1901	Andrew James Smith Blanche Healey	Andrew James Smith Blanche Healey 💍 1901/2643	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	30 25	Dunedin Ravensbourne	5 days 3 weeks	In the house of John Lilburn, Ravensbourne	01/2801		16 April 1901	Revd James McGrath, Roman Catholic Priest of Port Chalmers
183	16 April 1901	Michael Patrick Bradley Margaret Roughan	Michael Patrick Bradley Margaret Roughan 💍 1901/2409	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	30 30	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St Josephs Cathedral	01/2741		16 April 1901	Revd P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
184	16 April 1901	John Patterson Barbara Ann Campbell	John Patterson Barbara Ann Campbell 💍 1901/2372	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	29 28	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 1 month	In the house of Frederic K. Joseph Williams, Royal Terrace	01/2726		16 April 1901	Revd Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
185	17 April 1901	Francis Seymour Caines Alice Maude Fitzgerald	Francis Seymour Caines Alice Maud Fitzgerald 💍 1901/2408	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 19	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 3 days	In St Josephs Cathedral	01/2740	Ellen Fitzgerald, mother of minor	17 April 1901	Revd P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
186	17 April 1901	Archibald Benson Edith Margaret Colclough	Archibald Benson Edith Margaret Clark 💍 1901/2257	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 25	Mornington Mornington	10 days 5 days	In the house of Revd William Hewitson	01/2698		17 April 1901	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
187	18 April 1901	Matthew James Bowden Susanna Bell Bennetts	Matthew James Bowder Bennett Susanna Bell 💍 1901/2355	Bachelor Spinster	Minister	42 34	St. Clair St. Kilda	5 days 8 days	In the house of William Ings	01/2777		18 April 1901	Revd F. W. Boreham, Baptist Minister of Mosgiel
188	18 April 1901	Thomas Arthur Will Janie Alice Black	Thomas Arthur Will Janie Alice Black 💍 1901/2258	Bachelor Spinster	Surgeon	26 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 20 years	In Knox Church	01/2699		18 April 1901	Revd W. Hewitson, 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).