Intentions to Marry, 1911 Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840447, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1911 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, (1911a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1911b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1911c).

Page 185

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 31 March 1911 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

23 February 1911

Andrew Wright Railton
Ellen Chapman

Andrew Wright Railton
Ellen Chapman
💍 1911/1500

Widower
Spinster

Railway ganger

54
39

Lyttelton
Christchurch

6 years
30 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages

11/1019

23 February 1911

L. B. Williams, Registrar of Marriages, Christchurch

No	6
Date of Notice	23 February 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Wright Railton	Ellen Chapman
	💍 1911/1500
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Railway ganger
Age	54	39
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Christchurch
Length of Residence	6 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages
Folio	11/1019
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1911
Officiating Minister	L. B. Williams, Registrar of Marriages, Christchurch

27 February 1911

William Broden
Emily Priscilla Davies

William Bowden
Emily Priscilla Davies
💍 1911/2040

Bachelor
Spinster

Drover
Waitress

24
25

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

3 years
2 weeks

Holy Trinity Church

11/1544

24 February 1911

Rev. G. Coates (Anglican)

No	7
Date of Notice	27 February 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Broden	Emily Priscilla Davies
BDM Match (93%)	William Bowden	Emily Priscilla Davies
	💍 1911/2040
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Drover	Waitress
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	3 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church
Folio	11/1544
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Coates (Anglican)

1 March 1911

Leona Domenico Serra
Ellen O'Neill

Leona Dominico Terra
Ellen O'Neill
💍 1911/2001

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer

20
19

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

3 days
3 weeks

The Roman Catholic Church

11/1369

Domenico Serra, father of groom; Mary Ann O'Neill, mother of bride

1 March 1911

Rev. J. B. Doull (Roman Catholic)

No	8
Date of Notice	1 March 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leona Domenico Serra	Ellen O'Neill
BDM Match (95%)	Leona Dominico Terra	Ellen O'Neill
	💍 1911/2001
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	The Roman Catholic Church
Folio	11/1369
Consent	Domenico Serra, father of groom; Mary Ann O'Neill, mother of bride
Date of Certificate	1 March 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Doull (Roman Catholic)

2 March 1911

John Dawson
Margaret Maria Agar

John Dawson
Margaret Maria Agar
💍 1911/1940

Widower
Spinster

Railway engine driver
Clerk

56
39

Christchurch
Lyttelton

16 years
39 years

St. Saviour's Church

11/1443

2 March 1911

Rev. E. E. Chambers (Anglican)

No	9
Date of Notice	2 March 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Dawson	Margaret Maria Agar
	💍 1911/1940
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Railway engine driver	Clerk
Age	56	39
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	16 years	39 years
Marriage Place	St. Saviour's Church
Folio	11/1443
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. E. Chambers (Anglican)

9 March 1911

William Atkinson Lancaster
Mabel Ivy Boyd

William Atkinson Lancaster
Mabel Ivy Boyd
💍 1911/1939

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Dressmaker

29
24

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

5 years
24 years

St. Saviour's Church

11/1442

9 March 1911

Rev. E. E. Chambers (Anglican)

No	10
Date of Notice	9 March 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Atkinson Lancaster	Mabel Ivy Boyd
	💍 1911/1939
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Dressmaker
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	5 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Saviour's Church
Folio	11/1442
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1911
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).