Intentions to Marry, 1891

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840403, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole and Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

A few pages are missing due to focus issues.

The Archives NZ CSV index has recorded pages 765, 767 and 769 incorrectly as 795, 797 and 796.

Page 514

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 30 September 1891

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
13	3 July 1891	Harry Robinson Kate Hennessy	Harry Robinson Kate Hennessey 💍 1891/1533	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	23 years 21 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 4 years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street, Christchurch	91/2451	3 July 1891	Rev S Cummings, Roman Catholic Minister
14	14 July 1891	George Bissell Elizabeth Stace	George Bissett Elizabeth Stace 💍 1891/1684	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 years 22 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	91/2504	14 July 1891	William Stansbury, Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton
15	27 July 1891	Edwin Harrison Lewton Jennie Elsie Shepherd	Edwin Harrison Lewton Jennie Elsie Shepherd 💍 1891/1682	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 years 24 years	Lyttelton House of Mrs June Davies, Oxford Street, Lyttelton	18 months 2 years	House of Mrs June Davies, Oxford Street, Lyttelton	91/2502	27 July 1891	Rev F Linsley, Wesleyan Minister
16	4 August 1891	Henry Hirst Rayner Flora McLellan	Henry Hirst Rayner Flora McLellan 💍 1891/1734	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher	33 years 26 years	Lyttelton House of Hugh McLellan, Bridle Path, Lyttelton	5 days 26 years	House of Hugh McLellan, Bridle Path, Lyttelton	91/2507	4 August 1891	Rev J H MacKenzie, Presbyterian Minister
17	10 August 1891	Charles Henry Mansfield Kate Boys	Charles Henry Mansfield Kate Boys 💍 1891/1735	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	42 years 22 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	12 years 2 years	House of Charles Roger Hennessy, Jackson Road, Lyttelton	91/2508	10 August 1891	Rev F Linsley, Wesleyan Minister
18	9 September 1891	Henry Lee Leah Lilian Owen	Henry Lee Leah Lillian Owen 💍 1891/1716	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	22 years 21 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	7 days 7 days	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	91/2505	9 September 1891	William Stansbury, Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton
19	18 September 1891	Richard William Arnold Euphemia Portland Syme	Richard William Arnold Euphemia Pentland Syme 💍 1891/1683	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 years 23 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	27 years 3 years	Anglican Church, St Saviours, Lyttelton	91/2503	18 September 1891	Rev E Eliot Chambers, Anglican 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).