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 1052

District of Ingraham Quarter ending 30 September 1901 Registrar A. Sau, Registrar

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
51	13 July 1901	Thomas Cuddu Brash Margaret Henrietta Allan	Thomas Cuddie Brash Margaret Henrietta Allan 💍 1901/4180	Bachelor Spinster	Cheesemaker Domestic	28 years 20 years	Inglewood Ingraham	Residence of Brides parents Residence of Brides parents	Inglewood	01/4268	James Allan, Father	15 July 1901	Rev. James Aitken
52	23 July 1901	Wilson William Heaps Lavina Catherine Sparke	Wilson William Heaps Lavinia Catherine Sparke 💍 1901/4181	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	26 years 22 years	Purehurehe Slope Point	Residence of William Walker, Slope Point	Purehurehe	01/4269		23 July 1901	Rev. James Aitken
53	25 July 1901	William Mitchell Agnes McLaren	Robert William Mitchell Agnes McLaren 💍 1901/4182	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer Domestic	31 years 28 years	Invercargill Ingraham	Residence of Bride Parents, Ingraham	Invercargill	01/4270		25 July 1901	Rev. James Aitken
54	26 July 1901	David Wards Edith Hannah Crighton	David Wards Edith Hannah Crighton 💍 1901/3784	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	32 years 24 years	Tuhurau Ingraham	Residence of Bride Parents, Ingraham	Tuhurau	01/4271		26 July 1901	Rev. J. M. Davidson
55	26 August 1901	George Crosbie Rachael Ferguson McCall Scott	George Crosbie Barbara Ferguson McCall Scott 💍 1901/4183	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller Domestic	36 years 25 years	Ingraham Seaward Downs	Residence of Bride Parents, Seaward Downs	Ingraham	01/4272		26 August 1901	Rev. James Aitken
56	28 August 1901	Robert Alexander Barnett Jeanie Lenton	Robert Alexander Burnett Jane Linton 💍 1901/3790	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	26 years 22 years	Ingraham Ingraham	Residence of Bride Parents, Ingraham	Ingraham	01/4273		28 August 1901	Rev. J. M. Davidson
57	2 September 1901	Robert Milne Margaret Halehan	Robert Milne Margaret Halihan 💍 1901/4184	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	20 years 19 years	Ingraham Ingraham	Manse Ingraham Manse Ingraham	Ingraham	01/4272	James Milne, Father; James Halehan, Father	2 September 1901	Rev. James Aitken
58	21 September 1901	Robert Walker Selena Campbell	Robert Walter Selena Campbell 💍 1901/3773	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	25 years 20 years	Woodlawds Ingraham	Residence of Bride Parents, Ingraham	Woodlawds	01/4273	Barbara Campbell, Mother	21 September 1901	Rev. Evan Bissett

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).