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 650

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar William Joseph Call

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
264	10 June 1901	John Menhinick Catherine Mary Dunbar	John Menhinick Catherine Mary Dunbar 💍 1901/3599	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St. Patrick's Church	01/4096	10 June 1901	Revd. James Coffey, Roman Catholic Priest
265	12 June 1901	Alexander Hopkins Stone Maria Celia Brady	Alexander Hopkins Stone Maria Celia Brady 💍 1901/2412	Bachelor Widow	Shepherd	24 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 18 months	In St. Joseph's Cathedral	01/2744	12 June 1901	Revd. James O'Reilly, Roman Catholic Priest
266	12 June 1901	William Charles Pinder Annie Sophia Pinder	William Charles Annie Sophia Pinder 💍 1901/2413	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	21 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	21 years 21 years	In the house of Albert Edward Pinder, Howard Street	01/2745	12 June 1901	Revd. D. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
267	12 June 1901	William Jamie Hey Alice Mary Hey	William Jarvie Alice Mary Hey 💍 1901/2296	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	23 years 23 years	Mornington Dunedin	16 months 10 years	In the house of Eyre Evans, Clyde Avenue	01/2766	12 June 1901	Revd. Charles Tratt, Church of Christ
268	13 June 1901	James Thomas Hastie Jessie Peebles McLachlan	James Thomas Hastie Jessie Peebles McGlashan 💍 1901/3642	Widower Spinster	Express Proprietor	32 years 29 years	Dunedin Roslyn	20 years 20 years	In the house of Donald McLachlan	01/4099	13 June 1901	Revd. R. R. M. Sutherland, Presbyterian Minister
269	13 June 1901	Alexander Murdoch Clara Annie Rowe	Alexander Murdoch Clara Annie Rowe 💍 1901/2625	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	27 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	27 years 11 years	In St. Paul's Cathedral	01/2807	13 June 1901	Revd. C. G. Robinson, Church of England Minister
270	13 June 1901	Alexander Sligo Junr. Martha Elizabeth Read	Alexander Sligo Martha Elizabeth Read 💍 1901/2334	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	25 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 2 years	In the Baptist Church, Hanover Street	01/2779	13 June 1901	Revd. George Wainwright, Baptist 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).