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 506

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar Alex. Montgomery

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
73	19 November 1901	William Edward Coram Annie Gibbs	William Edward Coram Annie Gibbs 💍 1901/4971	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 years 19 years	Timaru Timaru	22 years 8 years	Registrar's Office, Timaru	01/5389	George Gibbs, Father	19 November 1901	Alexander Montgomery, Registrar
74	25 November 1901	Charles Edward Harbidge Mona Maud Louise Rigby	Charles Edward Derbidge Mona Maud Louisa Rigby 💍 1901/4965	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Fireman Dressmaker	26 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	5 years 18 months	Dwellinghouse of W. Ashton, West Town Belt, Timaru	01/5383		25 November 1901	Rev. George Burgess, Congregational Minister
75	25 November 1901	John Forbes Charlotte Staig Pearson	John Forbes Charlotte Haig Pearson 💍 1901/4972	Widower Spinster	Builder Domestic Duties	53 years 49 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 40 years	Dwellinghouse of George Pearson, Beach Road, Timaru	01/5390		25 November 1901	Rev. W. D. Roger, Presbyterian Minister
76	25 November 1901	William M. Knight Violet Emma Battock	William McKnight Violet Emma Battcock 💍 1901/5380	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter Domestic Duties	25 years 23 years	Timaru Timaru	25 years 23 years	Dwellinghouse of S. Battock, Edward St., Timaru	01/5990		25 November 1901	Rev. Samuel Buchanan, Primitive Methodist Minister
77	28 November 1901	John Wesley Rutledge Elizabeth Clark Mathieson	John Wesley Rutledge Elizabeth Clark Mathieson 💍 1901/4966	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Weaver	23 years 23 years	Timaru Timaru	18 months 8 years	Dwellinghouse of Robert Mathieson, Theodosia Street, Timaru	01/5384		28 November 1901	Rev. George Burgess, Congregational Minister
78	3 December 1901	Thomas Connolly Janie Chilp	Thomas Connolly Janie Philp 💍 1901/4975	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	37 years 20 years	Timaru Timaru	9 days 9 days	Roman Catholic Priory, Timaru	01/5392	William Chilp, Father	3 December 1901	Rev. Paul Aubry, Roman Catholic Priest
79	4 December 1901	Charles John Coste Mary O'Malley	Charles John Coutts Mary O'Malley 💍 1901/4976	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Sailoress	27 years 21 years	Timaru Timaru	9 months 7 months	Dwellinghouse of Rev. J. Sulman, Timaru	01/5393		4 December 1901	Rev. J. Sulman, Roman Catholic Priest

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).