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 323

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1901 Registrar J. M. W. Henderson

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
490	18 September 1901	Richard James Hitchings Margaret Drury	Richard James Hitchings Margaretta Druvery 💍 1901/3346	Bachelor Domestic	Bricklayer Domestic	27 26	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	House of Mr. Drury	01/3895		18 September 1901	Rev. J. J. Mather, Wesleyan
491	19 September 1901	Harold Gibbons Frances Jane Perkins	Harold Gibbons Frances Jane Perkins 💍 1901/3624	Bachelor Domestic	Carpenter Domestic	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 10 years	Registrar's Office	01/3775		19 September 1901	William George Williams, Registrar
491	19 September 1901	Charles Harding Elizabeth Mary Brown	Charles Harding Elizabeth Mary Brown 💍 1901/3264	Bachelor Domestic	Clerk Domestic	19 19	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 10 years	Registrar's Office	01/3775	Charles Harding, Father	19 September 1901	William George Williams, Registrar
492	19 September 1901	Harold Gibbons Frances Jane Perkins	Harold Gibbons Frances Jane Perkins 💍 1901/3624	Bachelor Domestic	Labourer Domestic	26 19	Christchurch Heathcote Valley	4 years 30 years	St. Mary's Church, Heathcote Valley	01/3851		19 September 1901	Rev. H. Gosset, Anglican
493	19 September 1901	Thomas Newton Payne Elizabeth Annie Payne	Thomas Newton Lilyard Annie Payne 💍 1901/3366	Bachelor Domestic	Compositor Domestic	28 19	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 19 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, East Belt	01/3880	Mary Saintsbury, Mother	19 September 1901	Rev. H. Daws, Wesleyan
494	19 September 1901	James Hill Wilson Alice Taylor	James Hill Alice Taylor 💍 1901/3297	Widower Widow	Labourer Nurse	62 53	Christchurch Christchurch	50 years 8 months	Anglican Church, Richmond	01/3807		19 September 1901	Ven. Arch. Lingard, Anglican
495	20 September 1901	Sampson Hore Adelaide Knight	Sampson Hore Amelia Adelaide Knight 💍 1901/4636	Widower Widow	Farmer Matron	60 50	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 21 years	St. Mary's Church, Addington	01/5238		20 September 1901	Rev. W. J. Bean, Anglican
496	20 September 1901	Charles Herbert Power Mary Jane Cox	Charles Herbert Masters Mary Elizabeth Morton 💍 1902/2445	Bachelor Domestic	Labourer Domestic	27 17	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 8 months	Pro-Cathedral, Barbadoes St.	not solemnised	Thomas Cox, Father	20 September 1901	Rev. J. F. Le Doux, Roman Catholic

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).