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 282

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar J. M. Patterson

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
212	13 April 1901	Henry Dalrymple Barnard Charlotte Hutchison	Henry Dalrymple Charlotte Hutchinson 💍 1901/2155	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 20 years	St. Albans House of Mr. Varthe, 20 Albert St., Linwood	01/2513		13 April 1901	Rev. C. E. Ward, Primitive Methodist
213	15 April 1901	Alfred William Cowles Alice Davidson	Alfred William Owles Annie Davidson 💍 1901/2103	Widower Spinster	Traveller	41 22	New Brighton New Brighton	11 years 1 year	Registrar's Office	01/2380		15 April 1901	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Patterson
214	15 April 1901	Edward Jenson Susan Going	Edward Jenson Susan Going 💍 1901/2114	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	41 34	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 20 years	Registrar's Office	01/2381		15 April 1901	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Patterson
215	15 April 1901	William Whyte Janet Charlotte Gibson	William Whyte Janet Charlotte Gibson 💍 1901/4266	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	29 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 19 years	St. Paul's Church	01/4451		15 April 1901	Rev. W. Whitehead, Anglican
216	15 April 1901	Arthur Burnett Dawson Mary Dawson	Arthur Bennett Mary Pawson 💍 1901/2070	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 20	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 5 years	St. Michael's Church, Greenpark	01/2456	Jacob Dawson, father	15 April 1901	Rev. H. Williams, Anglican
217	16 April 1901	John Henry Smith Elizabeth Cullen	John Henry Smith Elizabeth Cullen 💍 1901/2122	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Fruiterer	31 31	Christchurch Christchurch	31 years 7 years	Registrar's Office	01/2388		16 April 1901	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Patterson
218	16 April 1901	John James Ritson Annie Bell	John James Ritson Annabella Preston McKee 💍 1901/2121	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Domestic	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 1 year	Registrar's Office	01/2382		16 April 1901	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Patterson

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).