Intentions to Marry, 1899 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840415, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington (now located in the National Library reading room), September 5 2025

1899 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 869

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar William Shannyham

No	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
12	4 April 1899	Henry Tait Bessie Emma Fredenmick	Henry Tait Bessie Emma Tredinnick 💍 1899/2278	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	33 25	Woolston, Port of Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 10 years	House of Stephen Fredenmick	99/2208		4 April 1899	Rev. P. F. Murray, Wesleyan Minister
13	11 April 1899	Clement Campbell Smith Eleanor Jane Radcliffe	Clement Campbell Smith Eleanor Jane Radcliffe 💍 1899/2281	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 20	Teddington Governors Bay	20 years 9 years	St. Cuthbert's Church	99/2271	John Smith, father; Thomas Radcliffe, father	11 April 1899	Rev. F. Sheldon, Anglican Minister
14	25 April 1899	Thomas Snell Rachel Stewart Connal	Thomas Snell Rachel Stewart Connal 💍 1899/2277	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 27	Rangitata but Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 10 years	House of R. H. Connal, Dampier's Bay, Lyttelton	99/2266		25 April 1899	Rev. R. P. Allan, Presbyterian Minister
15	28 April 1899	John Frederick Forman Ellen Ellmers	John Frederick Forman Ellen Ellmers 💍 1899/2704	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 16 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	20 years 9 months	House of T. Bryant, London Street, Lyttelton	99/2688	Clara Amelia Ellmers, mother	28 April 1899	Rev. G. H. Treadwell, Presbyterian Minister
16	3 May 1899	Charles Mazey Alice Herbridge	Charles Mazey Alice Derbidge 💍 1899/2280	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	24 years 23 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	7 years 25 years	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton	99/2270		3 May 1899	Rev. C. Crooks, Anglican Minister
17	6 June 1899	Richard Thomas Burns Ada Louisa Wyatt	Richard Thomas Burns Ada Louisa Wyatt 💍 1899/5416	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	26 years 22 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	26 years 5 years	St. Joseph's Church	99/2267		6 June 1899	Rev. B. M. Salvador, Roman Catholic Minister
18	16 June 1899	Joseph Hill Alice Emma Easton	Joseph Hill Alice Emma Easton 💍 1899/2279	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 29	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 14 days	Wesleyan Parsonage, Exeter Street, Lyttelton	99/2269		16 June 1899	Rev. D. M. Nicoll, Wesleyan Minister
19	19 June 1899	Edward James Lester Agnes Margaret Dorothy Gillespie Pond	Edward James Lester Agnes Margaret Dorothy Gillespie Pender 💍 1899/2274	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Lyttelton Lyttelton	23 years 1 year	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	99/2264		19 June 1899	William Shannyham, Registrar
20	27 June 1899	James Sharp Annie Barrie formerly McGregor	James Sharp Annie Barrie 💍 1899/2276	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	35 35	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 4 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	99/2265		27 June 1899	William Shannyham, Registrar

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 1899. 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).