Intentions to Marry, 1918 Albertland to Kohukohu

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840475, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1918 is bound in six volumes (a to f) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1918a contains pages 1-432, covering districts from Albertland to Kohukohu

Page 249

District of Cambridge Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar R. Martin

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

28 February 1918

Frederick Cameron
Mary Watt

Frederick Cameron
Mary Watt
💍 1918/444

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical practitioner on active service
Nurse

27
34

Cambridge
Cambridge

2 days
34 years

Trinity Presbyterian Church Cambridge

829

28 February 1918

Rev T. H. Roseveare

No	1
Date of Notice	28 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Cameron	Mary Watt
	💍 1918/444
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical practitioner on active service	Nurse
Age	27	34
Dwelling Place	Cambridge	Cambridge
Length of Residence	2 days	34 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Presbyterian Church Cambridge
Folio	829
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev T. H. Roseveare

2 March 1918

John Cheverton Kersey
Ada Violet Boyce

John Cheverton Kersey
Ada Violet Boyce
💍 1918/445

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant
Domestic

28
28

Cambridge
Cambridge

2 1/2 years
28 years

St Andrews Church Cambridge

830

2 March 1918

Rev P. T. Williams

No	2
Date of Notice	2 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Cheverton Kersey	Ada Violet Boyce
	💍 1918/445
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant	Domestic
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Cambridge	Cambridge
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	28 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church Cambridge
Folio	830
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev P. T. Williams

18 March 1918

Ernest Edgar Smallfield
Ethel Frances Knap

Ernest Edgar Smallfield
Ethel Frances Knap
💍 1918/446

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer on active service
Domestic

29
23

Fencourt
Fencourt

2 days
5 months

St Andrews Church Cambridge

831

18 March 1918

Rev P. T. Williams

No	3
Date of Notice	18 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Edgar Smallfield	Ethel Frances Knap
	💍 1918/446
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer on active service	Domestic
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Fencourt	Fencourt
Length of Residence	2 days	5 months
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church Cambridge
Folio	831
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev P. T. Williams

18 March 1918

Charles Clarson
Mary Lee

Charles Clarson
Mary Lee
💍 1918/447

Widower
Spinster

Architect and Builder
Domestic

76
50

Cambridge
Cambridge

2 years
10 months

The Residence of Mr G H Pearson Hall St Cambridge

832

18 March 1918

Rev T. H. Roseveare

No	4
Date of Notice	18 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Clarson	Mary Lee
	💍 1918/447
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Architect and Builder	Domestic
Age	76	50
Dwelling Place	Cambridge	Cambridge
Length of Residence	2 years	10 months
Marriage Place	The Residence of Mr G H Pearson Hall St Cambridge
Folio	832
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev T. H. Roseveare

25 March 1918

John Henry McGarry
Christina Jamieson Cleland

John Henry McGarry
Christina Jamison Cleland
💍 1918/448

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Servant

27
22

Monavale
Monavale

27 years
3 years

Roman Catholic Church Cambridge

833

25 March 1918

Rev Fr John Kirrane Roman Catholic

No	5
Date of Notice	25 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry McGarry	Christina Jamieson Cleland
BDM Match (98%)	John Henry McGarry	Christina Jamison Cleland
	💍 1918/448
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Servant
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Monavale	Monavale
Length of Residence	27 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Cambridge
Folio	833
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev Fr John Kirrane Roman Catholic

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).