Intentions to Marry, 1905 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840429, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1905 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1905a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1905b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1905c).

Page 199

District of LYTTELTON Quarter ending 31 March 1905 Registrar W.D. Wallace

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

4 January 1905

James Henry Groome
Rachel Solomon

James Henry Crocome
Rachel Solomon
💍 1905/6245

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

23
29

Port Levy
Port Levy

2 years
6 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

05/1192

4 January 1905

W.D. Wallace (Registrar)

No	1
Date of Notice	4 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Henry Groome	Rachel Solomon
BDM Match (95%)	James Henry Crocome	Rachel Solomon
	💍 1905/6245
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	23	29
Dwelling Place	Port Levy	Port Levy
Length of Residence	2 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton
Folio	05/1192
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1905
Officiating Minister	W.D. Wallace (Registrar)

9 January 1905

Albert William Fenton
Elizabeth Alice Laming

Albert William Fenton
Elizabeth Alice Laming
💍 1905/6235

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
20

LYTTELTON
LYTTELTON

22 years
15 years

The house of Francis Henry Laming, Deford St, Lyttelton

05/1188

Francis Henry Laming (father)

9 January 1905

Rev. Wm Lee (Wesleyan)

No	2
Date of Notice	9 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert William Fenton	Elizabeth Alice Laming
	💍 1905/6235
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	LYTTELTON	LYTTELTON
Length of Residence	22 years	15 years
Marriage Place	The house of Francis Henry Laming, Deford St, Lyttelton
Folio	05/1188
Consent	Francis Henry Laming (father)
Date of Certificate	9 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm Lee (Wesleyan)

10 January 1905

Alfred Ernest Humber
Caroline Elsie Rose

Alfred Ernest Hunter
Caroline Elsie Gosse
💍 1905/6246

Bachelor
Spinster

Sign writer

20
21

LYTTELTON
LYTTELTON

3 days
3 days

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

05/1193

No one in authority to give consent

24 January 1905

W.D. Wallace (Registrar)

No	3
Date of Notice	10 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Ernest Humber	Caroline Elsie Rose
BDM Match (90%)	Alfred Ernest Hunter	Caroline Elsie Gosse
	💍 1905/6246
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sign writer
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	LYTTELTON	LYTTELTON
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton
Folio	05/1193
Consent	No one in authority to give consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1905
Officiating Minister	W.D. Wallace (Registrar)

13 January 1905

Charles Brien
Margaret Murray

Charles Brien
Margaret Murray
💍 1905/6184

Charles Brown Forbes
Mary Jane Murray
💍 1905/2388

Bachelor
Spinster

Warder
Tailoress

32
24

LYTTELTON
LYTTELTON

8 years
13 years

The residence of Patrick Murray, Deford St, Lyttelton

05/1180

13 January 1905

Rev. Patrick Cooney (Roman Catholic)

No	4
Date of Notice	13 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Brien	Margaret Murray
	💍 1905/6184
BDM Match (62%)	Charles Brown Forbes	Mary Jane Murray
	💍 1905/2388
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warder	Tailoress
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	LYTTELTON	LYTTELTON
Length of Residence	8 years	13 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Patrick Murray, Deford St, Lyttelton
Folio	05/1180
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Patrick Cooney (Roman Catholic)

21 January 1905

Bert Dean
Lily Amanda Hinds

Bert Dean
Lily Amanda Hinds
💍 1905/6242

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

20
19

LYTTELTON
LYTTELTON

18 years
19 years

The residence of Mark Thomas, Summer Rd, Lyttelton

05/1189

Frederick Stone Hinds (father)

21 January 1905

Rev. Wm Lee (Wesleyan)

No	5
Date of Notice	21 January 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bert Dean	Lily Amanda Hinds
	💍 1905/6242
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	LYTTELTON	LYTTELTON
Length of Residence	18 years	19 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Mark Thomas, Summer Rd, Lyttelton
Folio	05/1189
Consent	Frederick Stone Hinds (father)
Date of Certificate	21 January 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm Lee (Wesleyan)

3 February 1905

William Crail Angus
Eurydice Lillie Lancaster

William Craib Angus
Eurydice Lillie Lancaster
💍 1905/6188

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Guard

36
24

Christchurch
LYTTELTON

36 years
24 years

St. Saviours Church, Lyttelton

05/1183

3 February 1905

Rev. E. E. Chambers (Anglican)

No	6
Date of Notice	3 February 1905
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Crail Angus	Eurydice Lillie Lancaster
BDM Match (97%)	William Craib Angus	Eurydice Lillie Lancaster
	💍 1905/6188
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Guard
Age	36	24
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	LYTTELTON
Length of Residence	36 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Saviours Church, Lyttelton
Folio	05/1183
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1905
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. E. Chambers (Anglican)

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 1903. 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).