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 720

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 31 December 1880 Registrar W H 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

396

9 October 1880

Joseph Carrell Graham
Frances Mary Fluery
Fleury - written in pencil

Joseph Carrell Graham
Francis Mary Fleury
💍 1880/226

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

27
21

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

29 years
20 years

The House of Revd H Beck, Exeter Street, Lyttleton

See entry 400

9 October 1880

Rev. W. H. Beck (Wesleyan)

No	396
Date of Notice	9 October 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Carrell Graham	Frances Mary Fluery Fleury - written in pencil
BDM Match (92%)	Joseph Carrell Graham	Francis Mary Fleury
	💍 1880/226
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	29 years	20 years
Marriage Place	The House of Revd H Beck, Exeter Street, Lyttleton
Folio	See entry 400
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Beck (Wesleyan)

397

12 October 1880

Charles Belmer
Ann Evans

Charles Belmer
Ann Evans
💍 1880/243

Widower
Widow

Master Mariner

60
60

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

1 month
1 month

Office of the Registrar, Births death + Marriages, Lyttelton

80/2765

12 October 1880

W. H. Eyes Jr, Registrar of Marriages

No	397
Date of Notice	12 October 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Belmer	Ann Evans
	💍 1880/243
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Master Mariner
Age	60	60
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	1 month	1 month
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Births death + Marriages, Lyttelton
Folio	80/2765
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 October 1880
Officiating Minister	W. H. Eyes Jr, Registrar of Marriages

398

13 October 1880

Duncan Urquhart
Margaret Mather Gordon

Duncan Urquhart
Margaret Mather Jordon
💍 1880/601

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
17

Governor's Bay
Lyttleton

2 months
8 days

The House of the Rev. Jas Hill, Dampier's Bay, Lyttleton

80/3176

James Gordon, father

13 October 1880

Rev. Jas Hill (Presbyterian)

No	398
Date of Notice	13 October 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Duncan Urquhart	Margaret Mather Gordon
BDM Match (98%)	Duncan Urquhart	Margaret Mather Jordon
	💍 1880/601
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	17
Dwelling Place	Governor's Bay	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	2 months	8 days
Marriage Place	The House of the Rev. Jas Hill, Dampier's Bay, Lyttleton
Folio	80/3176
Consent	James Gordon, father
Date of Certificate	13 October 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas Hill (Presbyterian)

399

28 October 1880

Louis Philip Longuett
Elizabeth Adams

Louis Philip Longuett
Elizabeth Adams
💍 1880/225

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

30
21

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

2 years
3 years

The House of Mr William Salt, Dublin Street, Lyttelton

80/2771

28 October 1880

Rev. W. H. Beck (Wesleyan)

No	399
Date of Notice	28 October 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Philip Longuett	Elizabeth Adams
	💍 1880/225
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	The House of Mr William Salt, Dublin Street, Lyttelton
Folio	80/2771
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Beck (Wesleyan)

400

28 October 1880

Joseph Carrell Graham
Frances Mary Fleury

Joseph Carrell Graham
Francis Mary Fleury
💍 1880/226

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

27
19

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

27 years
2 years

The House of Mr. William Graham, Oxford Street, Lyttleton

80/2772

Harriet K. Madams, mother

28 October 1880

Rev. W. H. Beck (Wesleyan)

No	400
Date of Notice	28 October 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Carrell Graham	Frances Mary Fleury
BDM Match (97%)	Joseph Carrell Graham	Francis Mary Fleury
	💍 1880/226
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	27 years	2 years
Marriage Place	The House of Mr. William Graham, Oxford Street, Lyttleton
Folio	80/2772
Consent	Harriet K. Madams, mother
Date of Certificate	28 October 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Beck (Wesleyan)

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).