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 893

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar Robert Percy Ward

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
2165	2 October 1901	John Diver Elizabeth Barson	John Diver Elizabeth Carson 💍 1901/5368	Bachelor Spinster	Manager of Butter Factory Domestic servant	24 20	Enfield Enfield	24 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Basilica	01/6002	James Barson, Father	2 October 1901	Rev Michael Howard
2166	8 October 1901	Robert Pollock Mary Ann Smith	Robert Pollock Mary Ann Smith 💍 1901/5075 Robert Paul Edwards Mary Ann Smith 💍 1901/1320 Robert Wilson Marion Smith 💍 1901/921	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Wool Picker	32 22	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 22 years	Residence of Mr Alfred Smith, Reed St. Oamaru	01/5668		8 October 1901	Rev S. D. Cox
2167	16 October 1901	John Baikie Edith Julia Willetts	John Baikie Edith Julia Willetts 💍 1901/5081	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	44 23	Papakaio Papakaio	6 days 14 days	Residence of Mr John Willetts, Papakaio	01/5673		16 October 1901	Rev John Steven
2168	22 October 1901	Peter Bradley Mary Ann Cassells	Peter Bradley Mary Ann Cassella 💍 1901/5077	Widower Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	45 24	Enfield Enfield	3 years 6 months	Residence of Mr Peter Bradley, "Bohunella", Enfield	01/5670		22 October 1901	Rev. Jas. Standring
2169	23 October 1901	William Dunckley Crampton Jane Robertson Millar	William Dunckley Crampton Jane Robertson Millar 💍 1901/5503	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	27 23	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 4 years	Residence of Mrs Isabella Millar, Ribble St. Oamaru	01/6027		23 October 1901	Rev. Josiah Ward
2170	30 October 1901	David McKenzie Margaret Macaulay	David McKenzie Margaret MacAuley 💍 1901/5071	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	23 18	Awamoko Awamoko	2 1/2 years 18 years	Office of Registrar, Oamaru	01/5664	Father, Finlay Macaulay	30 October 1901	Registrar of Marriages, R P Ward
2171	2 November 1901	Francis George Marshall Jane Common	Francis George Marshall Jane Common 💍 1901/5504	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	25 25	Oamaru Oamaru	25 years 21 years	Residence of Mr John Common, Arun St. Oamaru	01/6048		2 November 1901	Rev Josiah Ward

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).