Intentions to Marry, 1908 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840438, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1908 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1908a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1908b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1908c).

Page 177

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 31 March 1908 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

3 January 1908

Alfred Fleming Quelch
Mary Elizabeth Delany

Alfred Fleming Quelch
Mary Elizabeth Delany
💍 1908/1422

Bachelor
Spinster

Agent

30
28

Mosgiel
Lyttelton

8 years
5 years

St. Joseph's Church

08/1469

2 January 1908

Rev. J. Delany (Roman Catholic)

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Fleming Quelch	Mary Elizabeth Delany
	💍 1908/1422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agent
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Mosgiel	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	8 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church
Folio	08/1469
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Delany (Roman Catholic)

15 January 1908

George Jennings
Etty Mary Nelson

George Jennings
Etty Mary Nelson
💍 1908/1424

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

27
25

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

4 days
25 years

The Methodist Parsonage

08/1471

15 January 1908

Rev. A. Peters (Methodist)

No	2
Date of Notice	15 January 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Jennings	Etty Mary Nelson
	💍 1908/1424
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	4 days	25 years
Marriage Place	The Methodist Parsonage
Folio	08/1471
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Peters (Methodist)

1 February 1908

Richard Blanchard Wright
Rose Jane Smith

Richard Blanchard Knight
Rose Jane Smith
💍 1908/1418

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Laundress

24
23

The house of Samuel Wright
Dublin St, Lyttelton

4 days
4 days

The house of Samuel Wright

08/1465

1 February 1908

Rev. J. J. Bates (Presbyterian)

No	3
Date of Notice	1 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Blanchard Wright	Rose Jane Smith
BDM Match (96%)	Richard Blanchard Knight	Rose Jane Smith
	💍 1908/1418
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Laundress
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	The house of Samuel Wright	Dublin St, Lyttelton
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	The house of Samuel Wright
Folio	08/1465
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Bates (Presbyterian)

3 February 1908

Henry Grinnell
Mary Hazel Likas

Henry Grinnell
Mary Hazel Tikas
💍 1908/1434

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Teacher

23
23

Rapaki
Rapaki

14 days
20 years

The house of John Charles Likas

08/1461

3 February 1908

Rev. C. Coates (Anglican)

No	4
Date of Notice	3 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Grinnell	Mary Hazel Likas
BDM Match (97%)	Henry Grinnell	Mary Hazel Tikas
	💍 1908/1434
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Teacher
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Rapaki	Rapaki
Length of Residence	14 days	20 years
Marriage Place	The house of John Charles Likas
Folio	08/1461
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1908
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Coates (Anglican)

14 February 1908

Edward Frederick Wilson
Janet Strange

Edward Frederick Wilsen
Janet Strange
💍 1908/1421

Widower
Divorced

Seaman
Cook

39
43

The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton
Lyttelton

12 years
12 months

The office of the Registrar of Marriages

08/1468

14 February 1908

W. D. Wallace, Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

No	5
Date of Notice	14 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Frederick Wilson	Janet Strange
BDM Match (98%)	Edward Frederick Wilsen	Janet Strange
	💍 1908/1421
Condition	Widower	Divorced
Profession	Seaman	Cook
Age	39	43
Dwelling Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	12 years	12 months
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages
Folio	08/1468
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1908
Officiating Minister	W. D. Wallace, Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

22 February 1908

William Bamford
Adelaide Elizabeth Maud Keith Frehem

William Bainford
Adelaide Elizabeth Maud Keith Treherne
💍 1908/1435

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

19
20

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

19 years
18 years

St. Saviour's Church

08/1462

Samuel Bamford (Father); Walter Frehem (Father)

22 February 1908

Rev. E. E. Chambers (Anglican)

No	6
Date of Notice	22 February 1908
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Bamford	Adelaide Elizabeth Maud Keith Frehem
BDM Match (89%)	William Bainford	Adelaide Elizabeth Maud Keith Treherne
	💍 1908/1435
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	19	20
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	19 years	18 years
Marriage Place	St. Saviour's Church
Folio	08/1462
Consent	Samuel Bamford (Father); Walter Frehem (Father)
Date of Certificate	22 February 1908
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 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).