Intentions to Marry, 1900 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840418, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, September 12 2025

1900 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 370

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 30 September 1900 Registrar William Trengrove

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
20	10 July 1900	Harry Pye Rose Ann Cole	Harry Lye Rose Anne Cole 💍 1900/3952	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	25 22	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 months 2 years	House of John Cole, Lyttelton	00/3698		10 July 1900	Rev. J. Foley, Roman Catholic Minister
21	19 July 1900	Paki Susan Charlotte Joan Ruru	'Not Recorded' Paki Susan Charlotte Joan Ruru 💍 1900/3955	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 24	Port Levy Port Levy	14 days 1 year	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	00/3701		19 July 1900	William Trengrove, Registrar of Marriages
22	31 July 1900	Vernon Charles Rivett-Carnac Adeline Palli Jaonen	Vernon Charles Rivett Carusa Adeline Bette Jaonen 💍 1900/3958	Bachelor Spinster	Grazier	21 14	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 2 months	House of Frank E. Thornton, Frederick Street, Lyttelton	00/3704	Declaration made, minor age 24	15 August 1900	Rev. A. H. Trendwell, Presbyterian Minister
23	29 August 1900	Augustus McPhail Bessie Roster formerly Wright	Angus McPhail Bessie Lester 💍 1900/3956	Bachelor Widow	Dinkeyman Laundress	38 37	Lyttelton Lyttelton	5 days 10 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	00/3702		29 August 1900	William Trengrove, Registrar
24	31 August 1900	John Francis McCarthy Minnie May Agnew	John Francis McCarthy Minnie Mary Agar 💍 1900/3953	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	28 26	Lyttelton Lyttelton	14 days 26 years	St. Joseph's Church, Lyttelton	00/3699		31 August 1900	Rev. James Foley, Roman Catholic Minister
25	4 September 1900	Henry Beauchamp Rickett Eleanor Wood	Henry Beauchamp Ricketts Eleanor Wood 💍 1900/3954	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	31 24	SS Poherua, Lyttelton Lyttelton	1 month 21 days	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton	00/3700		4 September 1900	Rev. C. Coates, Anglican Minister
26	25 September 1900	Edward Clement Perrett Cordelia Gallraith	Edward Clement Pavitt Margaret Annie Cordelia Galbraith 💍 1900/3957	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 25	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 25 years	St. Saviour's Church, Lyttelton West	00/3703		25 September 1900	Rev. E. C. Chambers, Anglican Minister
27	29 September 1900	Charles Eugene McGill Florence Maud Childs	Charles Eugene McGill Florence Maud Childs 💍 1900/5087	Bachelor Spinster	Artisan Saleswoman	27 23	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 years 23 years	St. Joseph's Church, Lyttelton	00/5169		29 September 1900	Rev. James Foley, Roman Catholic 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 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).