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 653

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar McCall, 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
284	21 June 1901	James Edward Bandeens Cecelia Marion Welsh	James Edward Bandeen Cecelia Marion Welsh 💍 1901/2374	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 years 19 years	Dunedin South Dunedin	2 years 19 years	In the house of John Joseph Welsh, Dunedin	01/2728	John Joseph Welsh, father of Minor	21 June 1901	Revd Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
285	24 June 1901	James McNeill Margaret Meikle Dickison	James McGill Margaret Meikle Dickison 💍 1901/3594	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	28 years 30 years	Anderson's Bay Anderson's Bay	3 days 8 years	In the Presbyterian Church, Anderson's Bay	01/4091		24 June 1901	Revd H. Cameron, Presbyterian Minister
286	24 June 1901	Michael Delahunty Catherine Healy	Michael Delahunty Catherine Healy 💍 1901/2418	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	35 years 28 years	Roslyn Dunedin	18 years 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Dunedin	01/2749		24 June 1901	Revd P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
287	25 June 1901	James Dunn Mary Morgan	James Dunn Mary Morgan 💍 1901/2249 Francis Thomas McAnulty Mary Morgan 💍 1901/4383	Divorced Spinster	Compositor	48 years 29 years	Ravensbourne Ravensbourne	4 years 4 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	01/2691	Decree absolute dated 22nd October 1900	25 June 1901	W. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
288	25 June 1901	Alfred Mayne Hissower Jennie Aldridge	Alfred Mayne Jennie Aldridge 💍 1901/2628	Bachelor Widow	Tailor	32 years 32 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin	01/2810		25 June 1901	Revd Harold J. Brooke, Church of England Minister
289	25 June 1901	Alfred Murray Agnes Young	Alfred Murray Agnes Young 💍 1901/3821	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	31 years 24 years	Dunedin South Dunedin	31 years 24 years	In the house of Revd Daniel Sutton, Caversham	01/4332		25 June 1901	Revd D. Sutton, Presbyterian Minister
290	25 June 1901	Edward Pearson Ellen Kemp	Edward Pearson Ellen Kemp 💍 1901/2359	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St. Andrews Church, Dunedin	01/2714		25 June 1901	Revd Dr. Waddell, Presbyterian Minister

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).