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 416

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar William Shanaghan

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
37	8 October 1907	William Conrad Whitford Leah Erickson	William Conrad Whitford Isabel Erickson 💍 1901/4769	Bachelor Spinster	Riveter	20 years 20 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	6 years 20 years	House of J. R. Whitford, Lyttelton	01/5345	James Richard Whitford, father of groom; Mary Jane Benson, mother of bride	8 October 1907	Rev. D. Mc. Keay, Wesleyan Minister
38	8 October 1907	John Macdonald Mary Amelia McCarthy	John Macdonald Etheridge Mary Amelia McCarthy 💍 1901/5483	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 years 27 years	85 Tarawera, Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 years	St. Joseph's Church, Lyttelton	01/6026		8 October 1907	Rev. P. Cooney, Roman Catholic Minister
39	17 October 1907	Albert Edward Butterfill Horton Winifred Annie Mary Willis	Albert Edward Butterfill Hosken Winifred Annie Mary Willis 💍 1901/4787	Bachelor Spinster	Paymaster Royal Navy	31 years 20 years	H.M.S. Torch Lyttelton	3 years 8 years	St. Saviour's Church, Lyttelton	01/5347	Stewart Healy, father of bride	17 October 1907	Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister
40	21 October 1907	Charles Berry Irene Howard	Charles Berry Irene Howard 💍 1901/5379	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 years 24 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 months 3 months	St. Saviour's Church, Lyttelton	01/5988		21 October 1907	Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister
41	28 October 1907	Robert Christian Edwina Mary Ada Marie	Robert Christian Elvina Mary Ada Marie 💍 1901/4780	Widower Spinster	Labourer	50 years 28 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	28 years 7 months	House of Robert Christian, Lyttelton	01/5346		28 October 1907	Rev. D. Mc. Keay, Wesleyan Minister
42	27 November 1907	Reuben Chamberlain Mary Clark	Reuben Chamberlain Mary Clark 💍 1901/4789	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 years 27 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 3 years	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton	01/5349		27 November 1907	Rev. C. Coates, Anglican Minister
43	29 November 1907	Morton Charles David Wade Elizabeth Mary Walklin	No matching marriage registration located	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	24 years 24 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 24 years	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton	Certificate returned by bridegroom		29 November 1907	Rev. C. Coates, Anglican Minister
44	24 December 1907	Robert Fraser Mary Fletcher	Robert Fraser Mary McDonald Fletcher 💍 1901/4788	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	29 years 22 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 days 24 years	House of P. A. Fletcher, Lyttelton	01/5348		24 December 1907	Rev. A. H. Hearder, Presbyterian Minister
45	27 December 1907	Alexander Harvey Elizabeth Manson	Alexander Harvey Mary Elizabeth Mansen 💍 1901/4712	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 years 27 years	Governors Bay Governors Bay	14 days 27 years	St. Augustine's Church	01/5344		27 December 1907	Rev. Pritchett, 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 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).