1865 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840377, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 375

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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

154

3 January 1865

Andrew Swanson
Margaret Ann Rumpf

Andrew Swanson
Margaret Rumpf
💍 1865/7739

Widower
Spinster

Master Mariner

38
22

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

14 years
7 years

Church of the Holy Trinity, Lyttelton

9 January 1865

Rev. Francis Knowles

No	154
Date of Notice	3 January 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Swanson	Margaret Ann Rumpf
BDM Match (89%)	Andrew Swanson	Margaret Rumpf
	💍 1865/7739
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Master Mariner
Age	38	22
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	14 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Church of the Holy Trinity, Lyttelton
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. Francis Knowles

155

9 January 1865

George Berry
Mary Deuchar Grant

George Berry Johnson
Mary Denchar
💍 1865/7784

Widower
Spinster

Store-keeper

33
28

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

6 years
7 years

Presbyterian Church, Lyttelton

9 January 1865

Rev. George Grant

No	155
Date of Notice	9 January 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Berry	Mary Deuchar Grant
BDM Match (61%)	George Berry Johnson	Mary Denchar
	💍 1865/7784
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Store-keeper
Age	33	28
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	6 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Lyttelton
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Grant

156

10 January 1865

Thomas Stephen Lewis
Alice Binion Cooper

Thomas Stephen Lewis
Alice Binion Cooper
💍 1865/7814

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
19

St. Albans, Lyttelton
Port Levy Reserve, Port Levy

3 years 3 days

Church of England building, Tuarangi, Port Levy

712

William Binion Cooper, father of Alice Binion Cooper

25 January 1865

Rev. James Grant Stack

No	156
Date of Notice	10 January 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Stephen Lewis	Alice Binion Cooper
	💍 1865/7814
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	St. Albans, Lyttelton	Port Levy Reserve, Port Levy
Length of Residence	3 years 3 days
Marriage Place	Church of England building, Tuarangi, Port Levy
Folio	712
Consent	William Binion Cooper, father of Alice Binion Cooper
Date of Certificate	25 January 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Grant Stack

157

26 January 1865

Edward Charles Mayne Reed
Sarah Wilson

Edwd Chas Mayne Read
Sarah Wilson
💍 1865/7826

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
23

Lyttelton
Christchurch

1 1/4 year
1 1/4 year

Wesleyan Church

712

Rev. John Crump

No	157
Date of Notice	26 January 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Charles Mayne Reed	Sarah Wilson
BDM Match (88%)	Edwd Chas Mayne Read	Sarah Wilson
	💍 1865/7826
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Christchurch
Length of Residence	1 1/4 year	1 1/4 year
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church
Folio	712
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Crump

158

15 February 1865

John Rutledge
Mary Wallace

John Rutledge
Mary Wallace
💍 1865/7823

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
22

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

6 years
1 year

House of Refuge, Lyttelton

28 February 1865

Rev. John Crump

No	158
Date of Notice	15 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Rutledge	Mary Wallace
	💍 1865/7823
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	6 years	1 year
Marriage Place	House of Refuge, Lyttelton
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Crump

159

1 March 1865

James Fleming
Francis Amelia Kate Trewheela

James Fleming
Frances Amelia Kate Trewheela
💍 1865/7829

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
21

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

18 months
18 months

House

375

8 March 1865

Rev. John Crump

No	159
Date of Notice	1 March 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Fleming	Francis Amelia Kate Trewheela
BDM Match (98%)	James Fleming	Frances Amelia Kate Trewheela
	💍 1865/7829
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	18 months	18 months
Marriage Place	House
Folio	375
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 March 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Crump

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).