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 894

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 1901

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
2172	4 November 1901	Edmund Stronge Brewster Jessie Vallance Smillie	Edmond Stronge Brewster Jessie Vallance Smillie 💍 1901/5078	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 37	Awamoko Awamoko	9 years 37 years	Public Hall near Georgetown	01/5671		4 November 1901	Major Henry Galland
2173	5 November 1901	Thomas William Turner Ida Mary Wadsworth	Thomas William Turner Ada Mary Wadsworth 💍 1901/5432	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Saleswoman	29 27	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 7 days	St Luke's Church, Oamaru	01/6102		5 November 1901	Rev. Archdeacon Gould
2174	5 November 1901	James Barrow Alice Millett	James Garrow Alice Willett 💍 1901/5074 James Brown Alice Mary Britten 💍 1901/4331	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	43 26	Ardgowan Pukeuri	23 years 12 years	Residence of Mr Richard Millett "Fairfield" Pukeuri	01/5667		5 November 1901	J. J. Franklyn
2175	12 November 1901	William Simpson Matilda Nicholson	William Simpson Matilda Nicholson 💍 1901/5506	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 25	Pukeuri Pukeuri	4 days 25 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Oamaru	01/6049		12 November 1901	Rev. Josiah Ward
2176	2 December 1901	Wheeler Sumber Cooper Emily Eliza Stock	Wheeler Tumber Cooper Emily Eliza Stock 💍 1901/5507	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	23 26	Kakanui North Kakanui North	12 months 26 years	Residence of Mr Henry Stock, Kakanui North	01/6050		2 December 1901	Rev. Josiah Ward
2177	3 December 1901	John Rotan Gray Sutherland Blanche Dolina Brins	John Robson Gray Sutherland Blanche Dolina Brims 💍 1901/5073	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Schoolteacher	21 23	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 6 weeks	Residence of Mr Robert Brins, Arun St, Oamaru	01/5666		3 December 1901	Rev. Wm Wright
2178	10 December 1901	David Brunson Mary Louisa Willetts	David Samson Mary Louisa Willetts 💍 1901/5082	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic servant	31 20	Papakaio Papakaio	5 years 2 years	Residence of Mr John Willetts, Papakaio	01/5674	Father, John Willetts	10 December 1901	Rev. John Steven

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).