Intentions to Marry, 1906 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840432, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1906 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1906a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1906b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1906c).

Page 214

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 31 March 1906 Registrar William 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

24 January 1906

Thomas Hardie
Rose Hemble

Thomas Hardie
Rose Kemble
💍 1906/2400

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Servant

41
21

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

1 month
3 days

At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

06/1173

24 January 1906

W. D. Wallace, Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

No	1
Date of Notice	24 January 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Hardie	Rose Hemble
BDM Match (95%)	Thomas Hardie	Rose Kemble
	💍 1906/2400
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Servant
Age	41	21
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	1 month	3 days
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton
Folio	06/1173
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1906
Officiating Minister	W. D. Wallace, Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

23 February 1906

Harry Robinson
Annie Turner

Harry Robinson
Annie Turner
💍 1906/2401

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Servant

32
23

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

5 days
2 months

At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

06/1174

23 February 1906

W. D. Wallace, Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

No	2
Date of Notice	23 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Robinson	Annie Turner
	💍 1906/2401
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Servant
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	5 days	2 months
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton
Folio	06/1174
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1906
Officiating Minister	W. D. Wallace, Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

26 February 1906

Herbert Edwin Lindsay
Beatrice Jones

Herbert Edwin Lindsay
Beatrice Jones
💍 1906/2404

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant
Clerk

24
21

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

3 days
2.5 years

Holy Trinity Church

06/1176

26 February 1906

Rev. C. Oakes (Anglican)

No	3
Date of Notice	26 February 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Edwin Lindsay	Beatrice Jones
	💍 1906/2404
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant	Clerk
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	3 days	2.5 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church
Folio	06/1176
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Oakes (Anglican)

6 March 1906

Charles Naismith
Agnes Hamilton

Charles Naismith
Agnes Hamilton
💍 1906/2405

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Nil

28
21

Lyttelton
Heathcote

6 weeks
3 days

At the house of John Vincent Stewart, Smith St, Heathcote

06/1177

6 March 1906

Rev. A. C. Wedderspoon (Presbyterian)

No	4
Date of Notice	6 March 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Naismith	Agnes Hamilton
	💍 1906/2405
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Nil
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Heathcote
Length of Residence	6 weeks	3 days
Marriage Place	At the house of John Vincent Stewart, Smith St, Heathcote
Folio	06/1177
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. C. Wedderspoon (Presbyterian)

27 March 1906

John Harvey May
Minnie Jones

John Henry May
Minnie Jones
💍 1906/3565

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman
-

25
19

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

9 months
6 months

At the house of James Richard Whittaker, Hawkhurst Rd, Lyttelton

06/3161

James Richard Whittaker, father (authorised to consent until 10 April 1906)

No	5
Date of Notice	27 March 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Harvey May	Minnie Jones
BDM Match (87%)	John Henry May	Minnie Jones
	💍 1906/3565
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman	-
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	9 months	6 months
Marriage Place	At the house of James Richard Whittaker, Hawkhurst Rd, Lyttelton
Folio	06/3161
Consent	James Richard Whittaker, father (authorised to consent until 10 April 1906)
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

28 March 1906

John Ryan
Fanny Alice Coote

John Ryan
Fanny Alice Coote
💍 1906/2403

Bachelor
Spinster

Warder
Dressmaker

35
27

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

3 days
10 years

At St. Saviours Church

06/1175

28 March 1906

Rev. E. C. Chambers (Anglican)

No	6
Date of Notice	28 March 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Ryan	Fanny Alice Coote
	💍 1906/2403
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warder	Dressmaker
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	At St. Saviours Church
Folio	06/1175
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. C. 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 1908. 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).