Intentions to Marry, 1864

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840376, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 304

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending [unknown]

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
27	16 May	James Kalley Catharine Kalley		Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 25	Lyttelton Lyttelton	12 months 12 months	Trinity Church	1130		May 16	Fred. Francis Knowles
28	17 May	Abraham Ashworth Johanna Power	Abraham Ashworth Johanna Power 💍 1864/6900	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 23	Mandeville Purau	8 weeks 12 weeks	Trinity Church Kaiapoi	1131		May 17	Fred. Francis Knowles
29	31 May	John Waterhouse Margaret Bell	John Waterhouse Margaret Bell 💍 1864/6945	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	23 20	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 months 10 months	The House of Mrs Weir Exeter St. Lyttelton	1147		June 7	Rev. John Crump
30
31	June 7	Robert Brydon Isabella Hindmarsh	Robert Brydon Isabella Lindsay 💍 1864/6948	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	29 21	Rosemary Farm at present in the occupation of Mr Broomhall Lyttelton	3 days because	House of Mr Broomhall near Bromley District	1148		June 7	Rev. John Crump
32	June 23	John Smith Betsy Mackey	John Smith Betsey McKay 💍 1864/6951 John Smith Betsy Crusher 💍 1864/5235 John Smith Mary Kelly 💍 1864/7767	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 19	Lyttelton Lyttelton	1 year 14 days	Sycare House Lyttelton Canterbury	1149	Donald Mackey Father	June 23	Rev. John Crump
33	June 23	David Shelton Agnes Beattie	David Stratton Agnes Beattie 💍 1864/6954	Bachelor Spinster	Stone Mason Domestic Servant	30 28	Lyttelton Lyttelton	7 years 10 days	They House Lyttelton Canterbury	1150		June 23	Rev. John Crump
34	June 23	Frederick Williams Isabella Loff	Frederick Williams Isabella Loft 💍 1864/6957	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	28 22	Lyttelton Lyttelton	12 years 3 years	House occupied by Isabella Loff	1151		June 23	Rev. John Crump
35	June 28	William Laird Harriet Jane Eayrs	William Laird Harriett Jane Eayrs 💍 1864/6903	Bachelor Spinster	Marine Engineer	23 18	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 2 days	Trinity Church Lyttelton	1152	James Eayrs Father	June 28	Rev. John Crump

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).