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 684

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 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
483	20 November 1901	James William MacKay Agnes May Hair	James William MacKay Agnes May Hair 💍 1901/4930	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	22 years 19 years	Caversham Caversham	4 years 2 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	01/5447	Alexander Hair father of Minor	20 November 1901	W J Hall Registrar of Marriages
484	21 November 1901	Anthony George Mangan Mary Fahey	Anthony George Mangan Mary Fahey 💍 1901/6098	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	27 years 21 years	Caversham South Dunedin	5 years 3 months	St Patrick's Church	01/6077		21 November 1901	Revd James O'Reilly Roman Catholic Priest
485	22 November 1901	Henry Sweeney Mary Louisa Ansley	Henry Sweney Mary Louisa Ansley 💍 1901/4843	Bachelor Divorcee	Hairdresser	30 years 31 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 14 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	01/5448	Decree absolute dated 21st of August 1899	22 November 1901	W J Hall Registrar of Marriages
486	22 November 1901	Walter Speight Anna Borrows Ferguson	Walter Speight Anna Borrows Ferguson 💍 1901/5363	Bachelor Spinster	Importer	32 years 27 years	Caversham St Clair	3 years 6 years	In the house of James Ferguson St Clair	01/5997		22 November 1901	Revd D. Dutton Presbyterian Minister
487	25 November 1901	Richard Thomason Little Isabella Lemm Gibson	Richard Thomason Little Isabella Lemm Gibson 💍 1901/4854	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	24 years 20 years	Dunedin Abbotsford	3 months 13 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	01/5449	Matthew Gibson father of Minor	25 November 1901	W J Hall Registrar of Marriages
488	25 November 1901	John Peters James Sarah Ann Smyth	John Peters James Sarah Ann Smyth 💍 1901/4998	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	24 years 21 years	Dunedin Opoho	4 years 21 years	In the house of James Smyth Opoho	01/5545		25 November 1901	Revd James Guy Methodist Minister
489	25 November 1901	James Robert Lowe Junr Lilian Isabel Mills	James Robert Lowe Lilian Isabel Mills 💍 1901/50	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	23 years 23 years	Roslyn Dunedin	6 months 16 years	In the house of James Lowe Great King Street	01/5465		25 November 1901	Revd J K McIntyre 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).