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 379

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
77	4 July 1865	Rawiri Rangifiae Susan New		Bachelor Spinster		30 28	Port Levy Port Levy	4 months 2 3/4 years	Maori Church			28 July 1865	Rev. J. Whiteley
77	28 July 1865	Thomas Henry James Elizabeth Walker	Thomas Henry James Elizabeth Walker 💍 1865/7856 John Jones Elizabeth Walker 💍 1865/8264	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	24 23	Bridle path same place	14 days 5 days	House of Mr Higginbottom	774
78	August 15	John Gebbie Ellen Cryer	John Gebbie Ellen Cryer 💍 1865/7106	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	24 23	Greensland, Head of Port Cooper Waterford, Rakaia	19 y 5 y	Church of England Leeston	Christchurch		August 15	Right Revd. the Bishop of Christchurch
79	August 4	George Ware Sarah May Lees	George Ware Sarah Bayliss 💍 1865/7862	Bachelor Spinster	Weaver	28 19	Lyttelton Lyttelton	14 9m 14 6m	Trinity Church		John Radford, father	August 25	Rev. Francis Knowles
80	August 10	George Edwards Harriet Radford	George Edmands Harriett Radford 💍 1865/7763	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	23 18	Head of Akaroa Bay same place	2 years 2 years	Trinity Church Lyttelton			August 25	Rev. Francis Knowles
81	August 12	John Steel Leggett Emma Margaret William	John Steel Legett Emma Margaret Genet 💍 1865/7859	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	35 19	Lyttelton Lyttelton	5 years 12 years	House of bride's father and other relatives		Edward Derry, father	August 25	Rev. Francis Knowles
82	September 7	Lancelot William Michel Ann Bull	Launcelot William Henderson Jane Bull 💍 1865/7772	Bachelor Widow	Seafaring man	28 24	Winchester House same place	4m 4m	Trinity Church			September 23	Rev. Francis Knowles
83	September 9	Edward Dallow Ellen Mary Freeman	Edward Sallows Ellisdon Ellen Mary Freeman 💍 1865/7766	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	28 25	London Street same	20m 3d.	Trinity Church			September 25	Rev. Francis Knowles
84	September 9	George James Cholmondeley Angelina Victoria Lee	George James Cholmondeley Angelina Victoria Lee 💍 1865/7769	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy orders	31 24	Parsonage Lyttelton	3y. 2y.	Trinity Church			September 25	Rev. Francis Knowles
85	September 28	George Ware Sarah May Lees	George Ware Sarah Bayliss 💍 1865/7862	Bachelor Spinster	Weaver	28 21	Lyttelton Lyttelton	14 9m 1y. 6m	Home	See No. 79		September 28	Rev. John Cummin
86	September 28	William Potter Maria Smithers	William Tonkin Maria Smitham 💍 1865/7778 William Baker Maria Preece 💍 1865/7256	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	24 16	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4m. 1 m.	Trinity Church Lyttelton

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 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).