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 258

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

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
52	28 January 1901	Charles Henry Loans Mary Agnes Burrows	Charles Henry Evans Mary Agnes Burrows 💍 1901/1010	Widower Spinster	Manufacturer	50 31	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 31 years	Pro Cathedral, Barbados Street, Christchurch	01/930		28 January 1901	Very Rev. Dean Foley, Romanist
53	28 January 1901	Frederick Thompson Ellen Pearson	Frederick Thompson Ellen Pearson 💍 1901/820	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 4 days	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	01/829		28 January 1901	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Waddell
54	28 January 1901	John Keely Annie Eliza Wright	John Kelly Anne Eliza Wright 💍 1901/1017	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Farmer	38 37	Christchurch Christchurch	38 years 13 years	Pro Cathedral, Barbados Street, Christchurch	01/931		28 January 1901	Rev. Dean Foley, Romanist
55	29 January 1901	Carl Wilhelm Tritt Elizabeth McBeath	Carl Wilhelm Tritt Elizabeth McBeath 💍 1901/6191	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic	41 26	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 6 months	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	01/830		29 January 1901	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Waddell
56	30 January 1901	Henry Bailey Wade Carmen Avis Todd	Henry Bailey Wade Carmen Avis Todd 💍 1901/806	Bachelor Spinster	Stock Rider	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	5 weeks 2 months	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	01/838	On person having authority to consent	14 February 1901	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Waddell
57	30 January 1901	Thomas Gambell Fanny Waters	Thomas Gambell Parrott Fanny Waters 💍 1901/1003	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	42 35	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 36 years	Congregational Church, Worcester Street, Christchurch	01/941		30 January 1901	Rev. J. J. Batter, Congregationalist
58	31 January 1901	Henry John Joyce Rosina Holliss	Lewis John Joyce Rosena Holliss 💍 1901/533	Bachelor Spinster	Captain, Militia	34 33	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 9 years	House of Miss Holliss, Cambridge Terrace, Christchurch	01/964		31 January 1901	Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan
59	31 January 1901	Marcus Black Mary Caroline Oxby	Marcus Barak Mary Caroline Oxby 💍 1901/403	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker Teacher	39 27	Christchurch Christchurch	7 months 14 days	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	01/871		31 January 1901	Rev. A. W. Averill, Anglican

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).