Intentions to Marry, 1890

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840402, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 258

District of Lyttleton Quarter ending 31 March 1890 Registrar William Stranghan

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

11 January 1890

Joseph Illingworth
Mary Catherine Beare

Joseph Illingworth
Mary Catherine Deare
💍 1890/493

Bachelor
Spinster

Milkman

23 years
21 years

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

23 years
15 years

Anglican church, Holy Trinity, Lyttleton

90/571

11 January 1890

Rev. F. Sotham, Anglican Minister

No	1
Date of Notice	11 January 1890
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Illingworth	Mary Catherine Beare
BDM Match (98%)	Joseph Illingworth	Mary Catherine Deare
	💍 1890/493
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Milkman
Age	23 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	23 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Anglican church, Holy Trinity, Lyttleton
Folio	90/571
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1890
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. Sotham, Anglican Minister

13 January 1890

John Burham
Lucy Leader

John Durham
Lucy Leader
💍 1890/2868

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
General servant

23 years
22 years

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

23 years
14 days

Anglican church, St. Saviours, Lyttleton

90/572

13 January 1890

Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister

No	2
Date of Notice	13 January 1890
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Burham	Lucy Leader
BDM Match (95%)	John Durham	Lucy Leader
	💍 1890/2868
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	General servant
Age	23 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	23 years	14 days
Marriage Place	Anglican church, St. Saviours, Lyttleton
Folio	90/572
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1890
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister

22 January 1890

Charles Joseph Cowan
Marion Campbell Shove

Charles Joseph Cowan
Marion Campbell Shore
💍 1890/494

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Station Clerk

27 years
19 years

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

6 days
6 days

Anglican church, St. Saviours, Lyttleton

90/573

Francis Cobbett Shove, Father

22 January 1890

Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister

No	3
Date of Notice	22 January 1890
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Joseph Cowan	Marion Campbell Shove
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Joseph Cowan	Marion Campbell Shore
	💍 1890/494
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Station Clerk
Age	27 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	6 days	6 days
Marriage Place	Anglican church, St. Saviours, Lyttleton
Folio	90/573
Consent	Francis Cobbett Shove, Father
Date of Certificate	22 January 1890
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister

6 February 1890

Arthur James Randel Fisher
Honor Carter

Arthur James Randall Fisher
Honor Carter
💍 1890/496

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23 years
20 years

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

15 years
11 years

House of Mary Anderson, Lyttelton

90/575

Mary Anderson, Mother

6 February 1890

Rev. G. Bond, Wesleyan Minister

No	4
Date of Notice	6 February 1890
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur James Randel Fisher	Honor Carter
BDM Match (96%)	Arthur James Randall Fisher	Honor Carter
	💍 1890/496
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	15 years	11 years
Marriage Place	House of Mary Anderson, Lyttelton
Folio	90/575
Consent	Mary Anderson, Mother
Date of Certificate	6 February 1890
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Bond, Wesleyan Minister

6 February 1890

Harry Brittain Jones
Martha Carson

Harry Brittain Jones
Martha Carson
💍 1890/495

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23 years
22 years

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

14 years
22 years

House of William Carson, Lyttleton

90/574

6 February 1890

Rev. G. Bond, Wesleyan Minister

No	5
Date of Notice	6 February 1890
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Brittain Jones	Martha Carson
	💍 1890/495
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	14 years	22 years
Marriage Place	House of William Carson, Lyttleton
Folio	90/574
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1890
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Bond, Wesleyan Minister

14 February 1890

Fred Ruck
Margaret Josephine Prendergast

Fredrick Ruck
Margret Josephine Prendergast
💍 1890/653

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine driver

25 years
23 years

Lyttleton
Heathcote Valley

3 days
18 years

St. Josephs Roman Catholic Church, Lyttleton

90/858

14 February 1890

Rev. Michael Laverty, Roman Catholic Minister

No	6
Date of Notice	14 February 1890
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fred Ruck	Margaret Josephine Prendergast
BDM Match (83%)	Fredrick Ruck	Margret Josephine Prendergast
	💍 1890/653
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine driver
Age	25 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Heathcote Valley
Length of Residence	3 days	18 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Roman Catholic Church, Lyttleton
Folio	90/858
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1890
Officiating Minister	Rev. Michael Laverty, Roman Catholic Minister

24 February 1890

Samuel Macdonald
Isabella Stewart

Samuel Macdonald
Isabella Stewart
💍 1890/480

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

27 years
20 years

Lyttleton
Lyttleton

4 years
15 years

House of William Stewart, Lyttleton

90/569

24 February 1890

Rev. G. Bond, Wesleyan Minister

No	7
Date of Notice	24 February 1890
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Macdonald	Isabella Stewart
	💍 1890/480
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	27 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Lyttleton	Lyttleton
Length of Residence	4 years	15 years
Marriage Place	House of William Stewart, Lyttleton
Folio	90/569
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1890
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Bond, Wesleyan Minister

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 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).