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 1055

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 30 September 1890

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
17	9 July 1890	George Arthur Lewin Mary Elizabeth Jarman	George Arthur Lewin Mary Elizabeth Turpin 💍 1890/2476	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	28 years 22 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	23 years 13 years	Anglican Church, Holy Trinity	90/2511	9 July 1890	Rev. F. J. Sotham, Anglican Minister
18	15 August 1890	George Hendry Emily Alice Arnold	George Hendry Emily Alice Arnold 💍 1890/2475	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 years 23 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 20 years	Anglican Church, St. Saviours, Lyttelton	90/2510	15 August 1890	Rev. E. J. Chambers, Anglican Minister
19	22 August 1890	James Best Emily Florence Carson	James West Emily Florence Carson 💍 1890/2477	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 years 24 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	14 days 24 years	House of Robert Robson, Lyttelton	90/2513	22 August 1890	Rev. K. Tinsley, Wesleyan Minister
20	1 September 1890	James Hutton Mackenzie Charlotte Elizabeth Johnston	James Hutton Mackenzie Charlotte Elizabeth Johnston 💍 1890/1481	Widower Spinster	Clergyman	40 years 26 years	Lyttelton Christchurch	8 months 3 days	St. Andrews Manse, Christchurch	90/2467	1 September 1890	Rev. Gordon Webster, Presbyterian Minister
21	4 September 1890	Patrick McGrath Margaret Smith Gray	Patrick McGrath Margaret Smith Gray 💍 1890/2478	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	25 years 22 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 22 years	House of Thos. Gray, Lyttelton	90/2514	4 September 1890	Rev. H. Mackenzie, Presbyterian Minister
22	8 September 1890	David Edwin Milton Moore Alice Louisa Cooper	David Edwin Milton Moore Alice Louisa Cooper 💍 1890/3570	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 years 22 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	9 years 22 years	Anglican Church, Holy Trinity, Lyttelton	90/2512	8 September 1890	Rev. F. J. Sotham, Anglican Minister
23	9 September 1890	Ernest Wood Isabella Brown	Ernest Wood Isabella Brown 💍 1890/2479	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 years 24 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 24 years	Wesleyan Chapel, Lyttelton	90/2515	9 September 1890	Rev. W. Tinsley, Wesleyan Minister
24	30 September 1890	George Bundy Isabella Boyd Canton Connal	George Bundy Isabella Boyd Canton Connal 💍 1890/3255	Bachelor Spinster	Baker School Teacher	26 years 25 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	26 years 12 years	House of Robert Connal, Lyttelton	90/3497	30 September 1890	Rev. H. Mackenzie, Presbyterian 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 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).