Intentions to Marry, 1880

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840392, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 714

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 31 March 1880 Registrar William Henry Eyes Jnr.

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

377

5 January 1880

Isaac Ereckson
Mary Jane Playstead

Isaac Erickson
Mary Jane Playstead
💍 1880/917

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
19

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

1 1/2 years
1 year

The House of Isaac Ereckson, Hawthurst Rd, Lyttleton

80/430

Elizabeth Playstead, Mother

5 January 1880

Rev. W.H. Beck

No	377
Date of Notice	5 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Isaac Ereckson	Mary Jane Playstead
BDM Match (96%)	Isaac Erickson	Mary Jane Playstead
	💍 1880/917
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	1 1/2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	The House of Isaac Ereckson, Hawthurst Rd, Lyttleton
Folio	80/430
Consent	Elizabeth Playstead, Mother
Date of Certificate	5 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W.H. Beck

378

20 February 1880

Henry Bailey
Sarah Jane Buchanan

Henry Bailey
Sarah Jane Buchanan
💍 1880/918

Widower
Widow

Cook
Cook

40
48

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

3 years
9 years

The House of John Haydon, Lyttleton

80/431

20 February 1880

Rev. W.H Beck

No	378
Date of Notice	20 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Bailey	Sarah Jane Buchanan
	💍 1880/918
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Cook	Cook
Age	40	48
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	3 years	9 years
Marriage Place	The House of John Haydon, Lyttleton
Folio	80/431
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W.H Beck

379

20 February 1880

James Sinclair
Sarah Loader

James Sinclair
Sarah Loader
💍 1880/919

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

21
17

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

10 years
17 years

The House of Joseph Loader, Lyttleton

80/432

Joseph Loader, Father

20 February 1880

Revd W.H. Beck

No	379
Date of Notice	20 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Sinclair	Sarah Loader
	💍 1880/919
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	21	17
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	10 years	17 years
Marriage Place	The House of Joseph Loader, Lyttleton
Folio	80/432
Consent	Joseph Loader, Father
Date of Certificate	20 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Revd W.H. Beck

380

5 March 1880

James Gillespie
Alice McKay

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

25
18

Port Levy
Port Levy

5 months
3 months

The House of Revd Jas. Hill, Lyttleton

No person in Colony

5 March 1880

Rev. Jas. Hill

No	380
Date of Notice	5 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Gillespie	Alice McKay
BDM Match (8%)
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Port Levy	Port Levy
Length of Residence	5 months	3 months
Marriage Place	The House of Revd Jas. Hill, Lyttleton
Folio
Consent	No person in Colony
Date of Certificate	5 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas. Hill

381

9 March 1880

John Dyer
Isabella Matthews

John Dyer
Isabella Matthews
💍 1880/245

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

25
23

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

6 years
18 months

The Holy Trinity Church, Lyttleton

80/2767

9 March 1880

Rev. J Townsend

No	381
Date of Notice	9 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Dyer	Isabella Matthews
	💍 1880/245
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	6 years	18 months
Marriage Place	The Holy Trinity Church, Lyttleton
Folio	80/2767
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. J Townsend

382

16 March 1880

William Newton
Mary Ashton

William Richard Newton
Mary Ashton
💍 1880/246

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

22
19

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

3 days
14 days

Holy Trinity Church, Lyttleton

80/2768

No person in Colony

16 March 1880

Revd. John Townsend

No	382
Date of Notice	16 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Newton	Mary Ashton
BDM Match (82%)	William Richard Newton	Mary Ashton
	💍 1880/246
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	3 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttleton
Folio	80/2768
Consent	No person in Colony
Date of Certificate	16 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Revd. John Townsend

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).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).