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 181

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 30 June 1909 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

6 May 1909

Linton Blackler
Catherine Fallairn

Linton Blackler
Catherine Gallavin
💍 1909/2109

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

22
18

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

22 years
18 years

The residence of Sarah Fallairn, Hawkhurst Road, Lyttelton

09/3262

Sarah Fallairn (mother)

6 May 1909

Rev. J.J. Bates (Presbyterian)

No	18
Date of Notice	6 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Linton Blackler	Catherine Fallairn
BDM Match (92%)	Linton Blackler	Catherine Gallavin
	💍 1909/2109
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	22	18
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	22 years	18 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Sarah Fallairn, Hawkhurst Road, Lyttelton
Folio	09/3262
Consent	Sarah Fallairn (mother)
Date of Certificate	6 May 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.J. Bates (Presbyterian)

11 May 1909

Francis Eugene Faudemer
Lilian Beatrice Schollar

Francis Eugene Faulkener
Lillian Beatrice Schollar
💍 1909/2124

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

33
30

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

6 years
5 years

The residence of Richard Thomas Norris, St. David's Street, Lyttelton

09/3269

11 May 1909

Rev. J.J. Bates (Presbyterian)

No	19
Date of Notice	11 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Eugene Faudemer	Lilian Beatrice Schollar
BDM Match (92%)	Francis Eugene Faulkener	Lillian Beatrice Schollar
	💍 1909/2124
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	33	30
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	6 years	5 years
Marriage Place	The residence of Richard Thomas Norris, St. David's Street, Lyttelton
Folio	09/3269
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 May 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.J. Bates (Presbyterian)

18 May 1909

Thomas Henry Webb
Maude Chapman Jones

Thomas Henry Webb
Maude Chapman Jones
💍 1909/2114

Bachelor
Spinster

Stevedore

32
32

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

7 years
32 years

Holy Trinity Church

09/3266

15 May 1909

Rev. C. Coates (Anglican)

No	20
Date of Notice	18 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Webb	Maude Chapman Jones
	💍 1909/2114
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stevedore
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	7 years	32 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church
Folio	09/3266
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 May 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Coates (Anglican)

26 May 1909

James Simpson
Elizabeth Crawford

James Simpson
Elizabeth Crawford
💍 1909/2112

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd

27
19

Charteris Bay
Charteris Bay

27 years
2 years

The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton

09/3264

Robert Crawford (Father)

26 May 1909

W.D. Wallace (Registrar)

No	21
Date of Notice	26 May 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Simpson	Elizabeth Crawford
	💍 1909/2112
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Charteris Bay	Charteris Bay
Length of Residence	27 years	2 years
Marriage Place	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton
Folio	09/3264
Consent	Robert Crawford (Father)
Date of Certificate	26 May 1909
Officiating Minister	W.D. Wallace (Registrar)

15 June 1909

Frederick George Taylor
Fanny Maud Dawson

Frederick George Taylor
Fanny Maud Dawson
💍 1909/1924

Widower
Spinster

Marine-steward

28
22

Lyttelton
Christchurch

6 years
5 years

Holy Trinity Church, Avonside, Christchurch

09/3128

15 June 1909

Rev. W.A. Pascoe (Anglican)

No	22
Date of Notice	15 June 1909
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick George Taylor	Fanny Maud Dawson
	💍 1909/1924
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Marine-steward
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Christchurch
Length of Residence	6 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Avonside, Christchurch
Folio	09/3128
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 June 1909
Officiating Minister	Rev. W.A. Pascoe (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).