Intentions to Marry, 1901 South Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840420, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, September 22 2025

1901 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 414

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 30 September 1907 Registrar H. Shannahan

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
26	1 July 1907	Mills Joseph Guy Edith Mabel Nunnery	Walter Joseph Guy Edith Mabel Messerry 💍 1901/3421	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 years 21 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	14 years 4 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	01/3913		1 July 1907	H. Shannahan, Registrar
27	12 July 1907	Hugh Smith Mary Ethel Wagate	Hugh Smith Mary Ethel Norgate 💍 1901/3422	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 years 19 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 years 19 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	01/3914	Wm. Wagate, father	12 July 1907	H. Shannahan, Registrar
28	29 July 1907	John Charles Binney Josephine Adelaide Malmanche	John Charles Bunny Josephine Adelaide Malmanche 💍 1901/3430	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 years 23 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 years 7 days	House of John Porteous, Lyttelton	01/3921		29 July 1907	Rev. J. Macleod, Wesleyan Minister
29	2 August 1907	Menan Cogle Jessie Marion Johnstone	William Cogle Jessie Marion Johnstone 💍 1901/3431	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 years 21 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	21 years 3 weeks	House of William Cogle, Lyttelton	01/3922		2 August 1907	Rev. J. Macleod, Wesleyan Minister
30	5 August 1907	Arthur George Richard Payne Margaret Ann McSweeney	Arthur George Richard Payne Margaret Ann McSweeney 💍 1901/3425	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 years 24 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 months 3 weeks	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton	01/3917		5 August 1907	Rev. C. Coates, Anglican Minister
31	13 August 1907	John Humphrey Day Louisa Porteous	John Humphrey Day Louisa Porteous 💍 1901/3432	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 years 22 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	25 years 22 years	House of G. Porteous, Lyttelton	01/3923		13 August 1907	Rev. O. Sadlier, Wesleyan Minister
32	15 August 1907	Samuel Ernest Elgar Sarah Ann Leed	Samuel Ernest Elgar Sarah Ann Teed 💍 1901/3429	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 years 33 years	Lyttelton Port Perry	28 years 20 years	House of William Leed, Port Perry	01/3920		15 August 1907	Rev. J. Foley, Roman Catholic Minister
33	17 August 1907	Percy Hughes Florence Mary Thomas	Percy Hughes Florence Mary Thomas 💍 1901/3423	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	23 years 19 years	S.S. Rotorua Lyttelton	12 months 6 weeks	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	01/3915	Elizabeth Thomas, mother	17 August 1907	H. Shannahan, Registrar
34	20 August 1907	William Edward Seymour Sarah Elizabeth Harrison	William Edward Seymour Sarah Elizabeth Harrison 💍 1901/3424 William Keen Junior Sarah Jane Harrison 💍 1901/3668	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 years 21 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	22 years 6 weeks	St. Saviours Church, Lyttelton	01/3916		20 August 1907	Rev. E. E. Chambers, Lyttelton
35	12 September 1907	Joseph Nicholson Carson Maude Emily Doms	Joseph Nicholson Carson Maud Emily Jones 💍 1901/3427	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 years 21 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	24 years 5 years	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton	01/3918		12 September 1907	Rev. C. Coates, Anglican Minister

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1901. 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).