Intentions to Marry, 1902 South Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840422, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke and Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, October 3 and October 8, 2025.

1902 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 483

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 1902 Registrar Alex. Montgomery

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

3 March 1902

John Hall
Rosina Ellen Cock

John Hall
Rosina Ellen Cock
💍 1902/1112

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet maker
Domestic Duties

26 years
20 years

Timaru
Timaru

26 years
20 years

Dwelling house of George Cock, Timaru

02/1181

George Cock, father

3 March 1902

Rev. Samuel Buchanan, Primitive Methodist Minister

No	11
Date of Notice	3 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hall	Rosina Ellen Cock
	💍 1902/1112
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet maker	Domestic Duties
Age	26 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	26 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of George Cock, Timaru
Folio	02/1181
Consent	George Cock, father
Date of Certificate	3 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Buchanan, Primitive Methodist Minister

4 March 1902

Colin McKenzie Taylor
Madeline Ratahi Watkins

Colin McKenzie Taylor
Madgeline Ratahi Watkins
💍 1902/1110

Bachelor
Widow

Retired Army Officer
Nurse

58 years
40 years

Timaru
Timaru

3 days
3 days

Registrars Office, Timaru

02/1179

4 March 1902

Alexander Montgomery, Registrar

No	12
Date of Notice	4 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Colin McKenzie Taylor	Madeline Ratahi Watkins
BDM Match (98%)	Colin McKenzie Taylor	Madgeline Ratahi Watkins
	💍 1902/1110
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Retired Army Officer	Nurse
Age	58 years	40 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Timaru
Folio	02/1179
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Alexander Montgomery, Registrar

5 March 1902

Frederick Walter Leggott
Frances Burke

Frederick Walter Leggott
Frances Burke
💍 1902/1111

Bachelor
Spinster

Boot finisher
Domestic servant

23 years
24 years

Timaru
Timaru

23 years
5 years

Registrars Office, Timaru

02/1180

5 March 1902

Alexander Montgomery, Registrar

No	13
Date of Notice	5 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Walter Leggott	Frances Burke
	💍 1902/1111
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boot finisher	Domestic servant
Age	23 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	23 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Timaru
Folio	02/1180
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Alexander Montgomery, Registrar

6 March 1902

Alfred Brown
Catherine Augusta Roney

Alfred Brown
Catherine Augusta Rooney
💍 1902/1114

Alfred Brown
Harriett Clark
💍 1902/4445

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable
Domestic Duties

24 years
24 years

Timaru
Timaru

2½ years
14 years

Dwelling house of James Roney, Bank Street, Timaru

02/1183

6 March 1902

Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister

No	14
Date of Notice	6 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Brown	Catherine Augusta Roney
BDM Match (98%)	Alfred Brown	Catherine Augusta Rooney
	💍 1902/1114
BDM Match (63%)	Alfred Brown	Harriett Clark
	💍 1902/4445
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable	Domestic Duties
Age	24 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	2½ years	14 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of James Roney, Bank Street, Timaru
Folio	02/1183
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister

12 March 1902

Frederick Christian Hohn
Edith Wood

Frederick Christian Kohu
Edith Wood
💍 1902/1117

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist
Teacher of Music

28 years
25 years

Timaru
Kingsdown

5 days
10 years

Dwelling house of Richard Wood, Kingsdown

02/1186

12 March 1902

Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister

No	15
Date of Notice	12 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Christian Hohn	Edith Wood
BDM Match (96%)	Frederick Christian Kohu	Edith Wood
	💍 1902/1117
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist	Teacher of Music
Age	28 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Kingsdown
Length of Residence	5 days	10 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Richard Wood, Kingsdown
Folio	02/1186
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister

14 March 1902

Frederick William Ghallard
Emily Maude Smith

Frederick William Shallard
Emily Maude Smith
💍 1902/1118

Widower
Spinster

Woolclasser
Domestic duties

54 years
30 years

Timaru
Timaru

3 days
10 years

Wesleyan Church, Timaru

02/1187

14 March 1902

Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister

No	16
Date of Notice	14 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Ghallard	Emily Maude Smith
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick William Shallard	Emily Maude Smith
	💍 1902/1118
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Woolclasser	Domestic duties
Age	54 years	30 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Timaru
Folio	02/1187
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister

18 March 1902

Thomas Edwin Yelland
Mary Hall

Thomas Edwin Yelland
Mary Hall
💍 1902/1113

Bachelor
Spinster

Sailor
Domestic Duties

29 years
24 years

Timaru
Timaru

4 years
24 years

Dwelling house of John Hall, William Street, Timaru

02/1182

18 March 1902

Rev. Samuel Buchanan, Primitive Methodist Minister

No	17
Date of Notice	18 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Edwin Yelland	Mary Hall
	💍 1902/1113
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sailor	Domestic Duties
Age	29 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	4 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of John Hall, William Street, Timaru
Folio	02/1182
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Buchanan, Primitive Methodist Minister

25 March 1902

John Purves
Sabina Rosetta Taylor

John Purves
Sabina Rosetta Taylor
💍 1902/1126

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

27 years
20 years

Timaru
Timaru

From childhood
14 years

Roman Catholic Church, Timaru

02/1194

May Taylor, father

25 March 1902

Rev. J. Johnson, Roman Catholic Priest

No	18
Date of Notice	25 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Purves	Sabina Rosetta Taylor
	💍 1902/1126
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	27 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	From childhood	14 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru
Folio	02/1194
Consent	May Taylor, father
Date of Certificate	25 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Johnson, Roman Catholic Priest

25 March 1902

Arthur Edgar Butt
Ida Charlotte Hill Baker

Arthur Edgar Butt
Jane Charlotte Firth Baker
💍 1902/1119

Bachelor
Spinster

Paper agent
Domestic Servant

25 years
26 years

Timaru
Timaru

25 years
16 years

Dwelling house of Baker Hill, Timaru

02/1188

25 March 1902

Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister

No	19
Date of Notice	25 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Edgar Butt	Ida Charlotte Hill Baker
BDM Match (85%)	Arthur Edgar Butt	Jane Charlotte Firth Baker
	💍 1902/1119
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Paper agent	Domestic Servant
Age	25 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Timaru	Timaru
Length of Residence	25 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Baker Hill, Timaru
Folio	02/1188
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister

26 March 1902

John Robson
Alice Morley

John Robson
Alice Wheatley
💍 1902/1131

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic duties

30 years
29 years

Otaio
Otaio

10 years
1 year

Church of England, Timaru

02/1176

26 March 1902

Rev. L. Carsley Brady, Church of England Clergyman

No	20
Date of Notice	26 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Robson	Alice Morley
BDM Match (82%)	John Robson	Alice Wheatley
	💍 1902/1131
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic duties
Age	30 years	29 years
Dwelling Place	Otaio	Otaio
Length of Residence	10 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Church of England, Timaru
Folio	02/1176
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. L. Carsley Brady, Church of England Clergyman

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 1903. 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).