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 179

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 30 September 1859

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
119	14 July 1859	William Price Milleny Josephine Louchemier	William Price Melleny Josephine Louchnier 💍 1859/1743	Bachelor Spinster	Settler		Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 3 days	Temporary Church Lyttelton	no person resident in the colony having authority	14 July 1859	Rev Francis Knowles
120	14 July 1859	William Stoughts Celin Stewart	William Hough Cecilia Hay Stewart 💍 1859/1746	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer		Lyttelton Lyttelton	14 days 12 months	Temporary Church Lyttelton		14 July 1859	Rev J Knowles
121	29 August 1859	George Lemon Sarah Sheppard	George Lemon Sarah Sheppard 💍 1859/1752	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	32 21	Lyttelton Lyttelton	7 weeks 5 weeks	Weeks Refreshment Office Lyttelton		29 August 1859	Wm Donald
122	30 August 1859	John Wharley Isabella Jackson Hughes	John Elmsly Isabella Jackson Hughes 💍 1859/1749	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 17	Lyttelton Lyttelton	10 years 7 weeks	Haming Temporary Church Lyttelton	Thomas Jukes Hughes	30 August 1859	Rev Fras Knowles
123	2 September 1859	Henry Fleetwood Catherine Praeger	Henry Fleetwood Catherine Grainger 💍 1859/1740	Bachelor Spinster	Doctor of Medicine	38 20	Lyttelton Lyttelton	5 weeks 3 weeks	Temporary Church Lyttelton	Professor resident in the Colony having authority	2 September 1859	Rev Fras Knowles
124	9 September 1859	James Mulkern Mary Ann Bently	James Coltman Mary Ann Marlow 💍 1859/1723	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	34 23	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 4 months	Registrar's Office Lyttelton	Spear Registrar	9 September 1859	Wm Molyneux
125	3 September 1859	Horatio Honwood Mary Ann Eligible	Horatio Henwood Mary Ann Elizth May 💍 1859/2090	Bachelor Spinster	Freeman of Public Works	26 23	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 8 weeks	Gidley Residence Lyttelton		3 September 1859	Rev John Alfred
126	5 September 1859	Thomas Barton Helen Adamson	Thomas Barton Helen Adamson 💍 1859/1340	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 22	Lyttelton Lyttelton	5 days 3 days	Temporary Church Lyttelton		5 September 1859	Rev Fras Knowles
127	14 September 1859	George Meredith Jessie Ferguson	George Meredith Jessie Fergusson 💍 1859/1776	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	24 21	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 weeks 3 days	Refreshment Office Lyttelton		14 September 1859	WmDonaly Reporter
128	16 September 1859	Henry Haley Mary Ann Houlahan	"Certificate not Claimed"	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	28 19	Lyttelton Lyttelton	10 weeks 5 weeks	Temporary Church Lyttelton	Robert Houlahan		Certificate not 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).