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 282

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar H. G. Hills

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

12 January 1918

Vivian Stuart Bolton
Dorothy Kent

Vivian Stuart Bolton
Dorothy Kent
💍 1918/450

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

31
24

Makaraka
Makaraka

Life
Life

Holy Trinity Church Gisborne

849

12 January 1918

Rev Edgar Ward, Church of England

No	6
Date of Notice	12 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vivian Stuart Bolton	Dorothy Kent
	💍 1918/450
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Makaraka	Makaraka
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church Gisborne
Folio	849
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev Edgar Ward, Church of England

21 January 1918

Sidney Oswald Guinness
Mary Warren

Sidney Oswald Guinness
May Warren
💍 1918/461

Bachelor
Spinster

Importer
Home Duties

32
28

Gisborne
Gisborne

7 days
10 months

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

850

21 January 1918

Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

No	7
Date of Notice	21 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Oswald Guinness	Mary Warren
BDM Match (95%)	Sidney Oswald Guinness	May Warren
	💍 1918/461
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Importer	Home Duties
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	7 days	10 months
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne
Folio	850
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

23 January 1918

Henry James Sutton
Rose Fredricks

Henry James Sutton
Rose Fredricks
💍 1918/468

Bachelor
Spinster

Slaughterman
Clerk

22
21

Gisborne
Gisborne

3 years
6 years

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

851

23 January 1918

Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

No	8
Date of Notice	23 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry James Sutton	Rose Fredricks
	💍 1918/468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Slaughterman	Clerk
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	3 years	6 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Gisborne
Folio	851
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages Gisborne

25 January 1918

Henry Warren
Angelina Pauline Marie McDonald

Henry Dorreen
Angelina Pauline Marie McDonald
💍 1918/469

Widower 21/11/1916
Widow 23/10/1900

Farmer
Dressmaker

61
53

Gisborne
Gisborne

4 days
42 years

"The Manse", St Andrews Presbyterian Church Gisborne

852

25 January 1918

Rev James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

No	9
Date of Notice	25 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Warren	Angelina Pauline Marie McDonald
BDM Match (88%)	Henry Dorreen	Angelina Pauline Marie McDonald
	💍 1918/469
Condition	Widower 21/11/1916	Widow 23/10/1900
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	61	53
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	4 days	42 years
Marriage Place	"The Manse", St Andrews Presbyterian Church Gisborne
Folio	852
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev James Aitken, Presbyterian Minister

25 January 1918

Alexander Baillie
Eunice Sylvia Lewis

Alexander Baillie
Eunice Sybil Lewis
💍 1918/470

Widower 13/4/1917
Spinster

Wool Buyer
Telephone Operator

32
22

Gisborne
Gisborne

3 1/2 years
Life

Holy Trinity Church Gisborne

853

25 January 1918

Rev Horace Packe, Church of England

No	10
Date of Notice	25 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Baillie	Eunice Sylvia Lewis
BDM Match (92%)	Alexander Baillie	Eunice Sybil Lewis
	💍 1918/470
Condition	Widower 13/4/1917	Spinster
Profession	Wool Buyer	Telephone Operator
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	3 1/2 years	Life
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church Gisborne
Folio	853
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev Horace Packe, Church of England

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).