Intentions to Marry, 1859

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840371, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 12 2024

Page 177

District of Lyttleton Quarter ending 30 June 1859

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
106	10 January 1859	Thomas Eldridge Hannah Sawyer	Thomas Eldridge Hannah Sawyer 💍 1859/1714	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	Full Full	Christchurch Lyttelton	6 weeks 6 months	Temporary Church Lyttelton	4 February 1859	Rev Francis Knowles
107	24 January 1859	Henry Vale Ann Moss	Henry Vale Ann Marsh 💍 1859/1711	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	Full Full	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 2 months	Temporary Church Lyttelton	24 Jan	Rev Francis Knowles
108	26 January 1859	Joseph Wells Ellen Wallace	Joseph Wills Ellen Wallice 💍 1859/1761	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	Full Minor	Lyttelton Lyttelton	1 year 3 months	Registrars Office Lyttelton	10 February 1859	McDonald Registrar Lyttelton
109	28 January 1859	Enoch Barker Amelia Foster	Enoch Barker Amelia Foster 💍 1859/1708	Widower Spinster	Gardener	Full Full	Lyttelton Lyttelton	6 days 6 days	Temporary Church Lyttelton	13 February 1859	Rev Francis Knowles
110	10 March 1859	Henry Salt Emily Neale	Henry Salt Emily Neal 💍 1859/1717	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	Full Full	Lyttelton Lyttelton	8 years 7 years	Temporary Church Lyttelton	26 March 1859	Rev Francis Knowles
111	12 March 1859	Joann Coltmans Mary Ann Marlow	James Coltman Mary Ann Marlow 💍 1859/1723	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	Full Full	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 months 3 days	Temporary Church Lyttelton	23 March 1859	Rev Francis Knowles
112	23 March 1859	George Widows Jane Hoursood	George May Jane Henwood 💍 1859/1720	Widower Spinster	Warehouseman	32 20		2 years 2 months		30 Apr	Rev John Alded
113	13 April 1859	Christopher Hellenos Mary Ann Davis	Christopher Alderson Calvert Mary Ann Davis 💍 1859/1800	Bachelor Spinster	Governmental			7 years 2 months		13 April	Rev John Alded
114	15 April 1859	John Barker Maria Page	Gilbert Butler Maria Page 💍 1859/1866	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter			9 months 9 months		18 April	Rev Francis Knowley
115	18 April 1859	James Grant Mary Ann Scott	James Grant Mary Anne Scott 💍 1859/1679	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant			2 years 8 years		21 April	Rev Francis Knowley
116	21 April 1859	Henry Wollen Eliza Levitt	Henry Walden Eliza Levett 💍 1859/1755	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher			22 months 7 months		29 April	Registered by Spelling
117	29 April 1859	Bert Innom Mary Ann Marks	George Johnson Mary Ann Marks 💍 1859/1857	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 20		3 days 3 days
118	17 June 1859	Francis Graham Selina Mcdonald	"Never claimed"	Widower Spinster	Sheep Farmer	full full	Lyttleton Lyttleton	1 day 10 months	Temporary Church Lyttleton	never claimed

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).