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 266

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1901 Registrar J. M. Vaudrey

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
111	6 March 1901	Walter James Jordan Mary Knox	Walter James Jordan Mary Knox 💍 1901/535	Widower Widow	Caretaker	47 58	Christchurch Christchurch	17 years 15 years	House of Mr. W. J. Jordan, 15 Cullinans Road, St. Albans	01/966		6 March 1901	Rev. M. Leef, Wesleyan
112	6 March 1901	Bertie Cecil Hiffick Angelina Emily Hoft	Bertie Cecil Gifford Angelina Emily Hoft 💍 1901/478	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 20 years	St. Marys Church	01/880	Herman Hoft, Father	6 March 1901	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
113	6 March 1901	Benjamin Charles Rogers Elizabeth Annie Smith	Benjamin Charles Rogers Elizabeth Annie Smith 💍 1901/502	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 20 years	Holy Trinity Church	01/905	Henry Smith, Father	6 March 1901	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
114	6 March 1901	Alexander Malcolm Frances Woodley Perrins	Alexander Malcolm Frances Woody Perrin 💍 1901/414	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic	26 23	Christchurch Linwood	6 days 2 years	House of Dr. Perrins, Nursery Road, Linwood	01/859		6 March 1901	Rev. D. Elmslie, Presbyterian
115	7 March 1901	Joseph Irving Simpson Lavinia Simpson	Joseph Irving Emma Simpson 💍 1901/498	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	28 27	Sydenham Sydenham	27 years 27 years	House of Mrs. Simpson, Durham Street, Sydenham	01/925		7 March 1901	Major J. Lipsett, Salvation Army
116	8 March 1901	Bernard Glover Frankland Alice Maud Dixon	Bernard Glover Franklin Alice Maud Dixon 💍 1901/536	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	23 27	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 13 years	Wesleyan Church, St. Albans	01/896		8 March 1901	J. A. Hocking, Wesleyan
117	8 March 1901	George Leonard Sandrey Lillian Cooper	George Leonard Sandrey Lilian Cooper 💍 1901/469	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 8 years	St. Matthews Church, St. Albans	01/896		8 March 1901	Rev. H. Williams, St. Albans, Anglican
118	8 March 1901	Alfred Griffin Edith Mary Hought	Alfred Griffin Edith Mary Painter 💍 1901/415	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	27 19	Linwood Linwood	20 years 8 years	House of Mr. R. Plenslie, Richfield Street, Christchurch	01/860	Alice Downs Waight, Mother	8 March 1901	Rev. J. Plenslie, Presbyterian

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).