Intentions to Marry, 1909 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840441, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1909 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1909a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1909b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1909c).

Page 182

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 30 September 1909 Registrar William Dryburgh 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

5 July 1909

William Bamford
Margaret Ann McKay

William Bamford
Margaret Ann McKay
💍 1909/4084

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
26

Governor's Bay
Lyttelton

26 years
4 days

The Roman Catholic Church

09/5294

5 July 1909

Rev. P. Cooney, Roman Catholic

No	23
Date of Notice	5 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Bamford	Margaret Ann McKay
	💍 1909/4084
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Governor's Bay	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	26 years	4 days
Marriage Place	The Roman Catholic Church
Folio	09/5294
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Cooney, Roman Catholic

22 July 1909

Arthur George Streeter
Janet Mary Manson

Arthur George Streeter
Janet Mary Manson
💍 1909/6215

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
22

Gebbies Valley
Allandale

15 years
22 years

Anglican Church, Governor's Bay

09/4524

22 July 1909

Rev. D. Fitzgerald, Anglican

No	24
Date of Notice	22 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur George Streeter	Janet Mary Manson
	💍 1909/6215
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Gebbies Valley	Allandale
Length of Residence	15 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Governor's Bay
Folio	09/4524
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Fitzgerald, Anglican

30 July 1909

Joseph Edward Brown
Julia Curtin

Joseph Edward Brown
Julia Curtin
💍 1909/4085

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel Manager

35
33

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

3 days
6 weeks

The residence of Lilly Olson, Governor's Bay Road, Lyttelton

09/5295

30 July 1909

Rev. P. Cooney, Roman Catholic

No	25
Date of Notice	30 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Edward Brown	Julia Curtin
	💍 1909/4085
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel Manager
Age	35	33
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	3 days	6 weeks
Marriage Place	The residence of Lilly Olson, Governor's Bay Road, Lyttelton
Folio	09/5295
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Cooney, Roman Catholic

31 July 1909

Alfred Henry Wendelborn
Mary Susan Dennis

Alfred Henry Wendelboon
Mary Susan Dennis
💍 1909/4087

Bachelor
Spinster

Harnessmaker

34
31

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

30 years
2 years

The residence of Ernest Dennis, Fishurst Road, Lyttelton

09/5297

31 July 1909

Rev. J. J. Bates, Presbyterian

No	26
Date of Notice	31 July 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Henry Wendelborn	Mary Susan Dennis
BDM Match (98%)	Alfred Henry Wendelboon	Mary Susan Dennis
	💍 1909/4087
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Harnessmaker
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	30 years	2 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Ernest Dennis, Fishurst Road, Lyttelton
Folio	09/5297
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Bates, Presbyterian

30 August 1909

Joseph Alexander Mackay
Margaret Grubb

Joseph Alexander McCaskey
Margaret Grubb
💍 1909/4088

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
24

Wellington
Lyttelton

12 months
2 days

Presbyterian Church, Wellington

09/5298

30 August 1909

Rev. J. J. Bates, Presbyterian

No	27
Date of Notice	30 August 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Alexander Mackay	Margaret Grubb
BDM Match (92%)	Joseph Alexander McCaskey	Margaret Grubb
	💍 1909/4088
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	12 months	2 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	09/5298
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 August 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Bates, Presbyterian

1 September 1909

Henry Alexander Stechmann
Mary Ann Jeffery

Henry Alexander Stechmann
Mary Ann Jeffery
💍 1909/4089

Bachelor
Spinster

Shipwright
Domestic Servant

21
20

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

2 years
20 years

The residence of Andrew Jeffery, Sumner Road, Lyttelton

09/5299

Andrew Jeffery, father

3 September 1909

Rev. J. J. Bates, Presbyterian

No	28
Date of Notice	1 September 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Alexander Stechmann	Mary Ann Jeffery
	💍 1909/4089
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shipwright	Domestic Servant
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Andrew Jeffery, Sumner Road, Lyttelton
Folio	09/5299
Consent	Andrew Jeffery, father
Date of Certificate	3 September 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Bates, Presbyterian

14 September 1909

Arthur Jones
Hilda Lewis Arnold

Arthur Jones
Hilda Lewis Arnold
💍 1909/6214

Bachelor
Spinster

Artificer
Tailoress

24
21

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

3 days
21 years

St. Saviour's Church, Lyttelton

09/4523

14 September 1909

Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican

No	29
Date of Notice	14 September 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Jones	Hilda Lewis Arnold
	💍 1909/6214
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Artificer	Tailoress
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	3 days	21 years
Marriage Place	St. Saviour's Church, Lyttelton
Folio	09/4523
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1909
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).