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 307

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1901 Registrar S. Field

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
384	13 July 1901	Patrick O'Grady Annie Henderson	Patrick O'Grady Annie Henderson 💍 1901/3924	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic	36 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. Paul's Church, Christchurch	01/4357		13 July 1901	Rev. R. Blackie, Presbyterian
385	13 July 1901	Peter Wallace Greenfell Mary Maude Maurice	Peter Wallace Grenfell Mary Maud Maurice 💍 1901/3345	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Domestic	29 18	Sydenham Sydenham	21 years 1 year	Salvation Army Office, Lichfield St., Christchurch	01/3847	Mary Maurice mother	13 July 1901	Col. T. Estle, Salvationist
386	15 July 1901	Charles William Boswell Mary Lavinia Mitchell	Charles William Bowman Mary Lavenia Mitchell 💍 1901/3877	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Dressmaker	23 23	Christchurch Riccarton	3 days 3 years	St. Andrew's Church, Christchurch	01/4415		15 July 1901	Rev. J. Macredie, Presbyterian
387	16 July 1901	Leonard Edward Thompkins Fanny Sherwood	Leonard Edward Thompkins Fanny Sherwood 💍 1901/3901	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	27 20	Woolston Woolston	2 months 20 years	St. John's Church, Woolston	01/4355	Henry Sherwood, father	16 July 1901	Rev. W. J. Gow, Presbyterian
388	16 July 1901	Thomas Henry Killick Eliza Hamilton	Thomas George Killick Eliza Beatrice Hamilton 💍 1901/3304	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Factory Hand	23 22	Christchurch Sydenham	5 years 22 years	St. Luke's Church, Christchurch	01/3814		16 July 1901	Rev. Archd. Hughes, Anglican
389	18 July 1901	George Samuel Wormald Annie Bosher	George Samuel Wormald Annie Bosher 💍 1901/3817	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic	23 22	Woolston Sydenham	18 years 21 years	St. John's Church, Woolston	01/4328		18 July 1901	Rev. R. A. Serle, Anglican
390	19 July 1901	George Larcombe Alice Gertrude Hart	George Larcombe Alice Gertrude Hart 💍 1901/3878	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	26 23	Christchurch Addington	1 year 6 years	St. John's Church, Addington	01/4416		19 July 1901	Rev. J. Macredie, Presbyterian

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).