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 671

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1901 Registrar M. J. 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
399	23 September 1901	Malcolm James Murfitt Nellie Ann Muirhead	Malcolm James Murfitt Nellie Anne Muirhead 💍 1901/3675	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	20 years 17 years	Ravensbourne Ravensbourne	3 days 16 years	St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin	01/4126	John Muirhead, father of Minor	23 September 1901	Revd. P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
400	23 September 1901	James Henry Rowe Isabella Finnerty	James Henry Rowe Isabella Finnerty 💍 1901/3676	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	25 years 18 years	Leith Valley Leith Valley	10 months 18 years	In the house of Michael Finnerty, Leith Valley	01/4127	Michael Finnerty, father of Minor	23 September 1901	Revd. James O'Malley, Roman Catholic Priest
401	23 September 1901	George Albert Skene Jessie Agnes Isabelle Grant	George Albert Skene Jessie Agnes Isabelle Grant 💍 1901/6325	Bachelor Spinster	Seedsman	24 years 24 years	Mornington South Dunedin	20 years 4 years	In the house of James Grant, South Dunedin	01/4151		23 September 1901	Revd. J. Southern, Methodist Minister
402	23 September 1901	Archibald Lindsay Berry Eva Elizabeth Berry	Archibald Lindsay Junr Eva Elizabeth Berry 💍 1901/4996	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 years 22 years	Abbotsford Abbotsford	18 years 14 years	In the house of Henry Berry, Abbotsford	01/5373		23 September 1901	Revd. James Guy, Methodist Minister
403	23 September 1901	James Columb Margaret Gracey	James Columb Margaret Casey 💍 1901/3677	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 27 years	St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin	01/4128		23 September 1901	Revd. P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
404	24 September 1901	James Swannell Foster Janet Amy Tidey	James Swannell Foster Janet Amy Tidey 💍 1901/5007	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	36 years 29 years	Caversham Dunedin	6 years 29 years	St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin	01/5530		24 September 1901	Revd. W. Curzon-Siggers
405	24 September 1901	William Anderson Charlotte Helen Marshall	William Anderson Charlotte Helen Marshall 💍 1901/4992	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 years 25 years	Ravensbourne Dunedin	22 years 2 years	In the house of Richard Anderson, Ravensbourne	01/5539		24 September 1901	Revd. T. M. Nicolson, Presbyterian Minister
406	25 September 1901	James Stevens Ann Allen	James Stevens Ann Allan 💍 1901/3604	Bachelor Spinster	Expressman	30 years 29 years	St. Kilda St. Kilda	4 years 29 years	In the office of Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	01/4078		25 September 1901	M. J. Hall, Registrar

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).