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 413

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar William Thoroughgood

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	20 May 1901	Samuel Manson Emma Manson	Samuel Manson Blatchford Emma Manson 💍 1901/2325	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 years 25 years	Teddington Governors Bay	2 years 25 years	St. Cuthberts Church, Governors Bay	01/2599		28 May 1901	Rev. P. H. Pritchett, Anglican Minister
21	1 June 1901	Edward Charles Adams Cecilia Annie Arnold	Edward Charles Adams Cecelia Annie Maude Lester 💍 1901/2281	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 18	Lyttelton Lyttelton	1 year 18 years	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton	01/2581	Edward Lester, father	1 June 1901	Rev. C. Coates, Anglican Minister
22	8 June 1901	Arthur Henry Eaton Nellie Tatnell	Arthur Henry Eaton Nellie Tatnell 💍 1901/3417	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	20 18	Lyttelton Lyttelton	20 years 10 years	House of Arthur Eaton, Lyttelton	01/3909	Arthur Eaton, father; Thos. Tatnell, father	8 June 1901	Rev. G. H. Treadwell, Presbyterian Minister
23	19 June 1901	Ernest Harvey Perks Jane Ross	Ernset Hokly Jacks Jane Ross 💍 1901/3419	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist Teacher	33 26	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 years 26 years	House of John Ross, Lyttelton	01/3911		19 June 1901	Rev. G. H. Treadwell, Presbyterian Minister
24	19 June 1901	William Cowie Catherine Murphy	William Cowlin Catherine Murphy 💍 1901/2270 William Tobin Norah Murphy 💍 1901/5445	Widower Spinster	Farmer	62 43	Governors Bay Governors Bay	34 years 13 years	St. Cuthberts Church, Governors Bay	01/2580		19 June 1901	Rev. P. H. Pritchett, Anglican Minister
25	21 June 1901	Charles Robertson Ella Maude May Morgan	Charles Robinson Elizabeth Ethel Morgan 💍 1902/881	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	31 years 20	Lyttelton Lyttelton	10 years 20 years	House of Samuel Morgan, Lyttelton	01/3910	Samuel Morgan, father	21 June 1901	Rev. G. H. Treadwell, Presbyterian 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).