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 1041

District of Winton Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar Ann Russell

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
195	23 April 1901	John Blue Mary Ann Cross	John Blee Mary Ann Cross 💍 1901/2506	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Winton Winton	20 years 3 Months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Winton	01/2955	23 April 1901	William Russell, Registrar, Winton
196	23 April 1901	William Green Elizabeth Annie Irwin	William Green Elizabeth Irwin 💍 1901/2507 William Green Catherine Frane Lockhart Wilson 💍 1901/661	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill Labourer	21 24	Browns Horowin	4 Months 20 years	The Home of Mr. William Irwin	01/2956	23 April 1901	Rev. George McDonald (Presbyterian)
197	26 April 1901	Ernest Herbert Wilmot Ida Eliza Ruth	Ernest Herbert Wilmot Ida Eliza Keith 💍 1901/5511	Bachelor Spinster	Land Surveyor Teacher	45 27	Invercargill Winton	30 years 1 month	The Holy Trinity Church, Winton	01/6054	26 April 1901	Rev. Harold John Brook (Church of England)
198	22 May 1901	Hugh Kerr Mary Elizabeth Winifred Jenkins	Hugh Kerr Mary Elizabeth Winifred Jenkins 💍 1901/5904	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	31 28	East Winton Gyp Road, Winton	3 days 20 years	The Roman Catholic Church, Winton	01/2957	22 May 1901	Rev. James O'Malley (Roman Catholic)
199	20 June 1901	Patrick McNamara Johanna Ryan	Patrick MacNamara Johanna Ryan 💍 1901/2508	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic Servant	30 32	Winton Winton	3 days 3 days	The Roman Catholic Church, Winton	01/2958	20 June 1901	Rev. James O'Malley (Roman Catholic)
200	1 July 1901	Michael Heavey Mary Sullivan	Michael Hearey Mary Sullivan 💍 1901/4179 Michael Joseph Keogh Margaret Sullivan 💍 1901/722	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	29 25	Winton Winton	3 days 2 months	The Roman Catholic Church, Winton	See Sep qtr	1 July 1901	Rev. James O'Malley (Roman Catholic)
201	16 July 1901	William James Plunkett Mary Harlett	William James Plunkett Mary Hazlett 💍 1901/4174	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 25	South Hill Road South Hill Road	21 years 20 years	Home of Mr. Harlett, South Hill Road	See Sep qtr	16 July 1901	Rev. Frederick W. Boys (Wesleyan)

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).