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 669

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1901 Registrar W. J. Call

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
385	11 September 1901	William Keen Junior Sarah Jane Harrison	William Keen Junior Sarah Jane Harrison 💍 1901/3668 William Edward Seymour Sarah Elizabeth Harrison 💍 1901/3424	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 years 19 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	3 days 11 years	In the house of Alfred Harrison, South Dunedin	01/4143	Alfred Harrison, father of minor	11 September 1901	Reverend Charles Watt, Church of Christ
386	12 September 1901	Alfred William Kearns Helen May Schofield	Alfred William Kearns Helen May Schofield 💍 1901/3590	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 years 18 years	Mornington Mornington	18 years 8 years	In St. Peters Church, Caversham	01/4088	James Schofield, father of minor	12 September 1901	Reverend H. Ronaldson, Church of England Minister
387	12 September 1901	Peter Pilet Elizabeth Ellen Menlock	Peter Pilet Elizabeth Ellen Wenlock 💍 1901/3908	Widower Widow	Upholsterer	56 years 44 years	Dunedin Dunedin	20 years 27 years	In the house of William Reece, Castle Street, Dunedin	01/4365		12 September 1901	Reverend George Wainwright, Baptist Minister
388	12 September 1901	Alexander McQuarrie Bertha Phoebe Baker	Alexander McQuarrie Bertha Phoebe Baker 💍 1901/3589	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 week	In St. Peters Church, Caversham	01/4087		12 September 1901	Reverend W. Ronaldson, Church of England Minister
389	13 September 1901	Peter Makinson Jopsen Mabel Rush	Peter Makinson Jopsen Mabel Rush 💍 1901/3601	Bachelor Spinster	Expressman	21 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	19 years 22 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	01/4075		13 September 1901	W. J. Call, Registrar of Marriages
390	13 September 1901	Archibald William Felett Jane Roy	Archibald William Flett Jane Roy 💍 1901/3717	Bachelor Spinster	Coppersmith	35 years 25 years	Maori Hill Maori Hill	3 years 25 years	In the house of David Roy, Maori Hill	01/4153		13 September 1901	Reverend F. H. Boreham, Baptist Minister of Mosgiel
391	13 September 1901	Philip Prattey Catherine Jane Dilley	Philip Batley Catherine Jane Duley 💍 1901/3791	Widower Spinster	Gardener	51 years 32 years	St. Leonards St. Leonards	3 days 5 years	In the house of Thomas Ball, South Dunedin	01/4276		13 September 1901	Reverend G. H. Standage, Wesleyan Minister, Port Chalmers

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).