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 024

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar [illegible]

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

30 January 1918

Horace Edward Olding
Margaret Bourke

Horace Edward Olding
Margaret Bourke
💍 1918/194

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

25
26

Auckland
Auckland

6 years
4 years

St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland

401

30 January 1918

Rev H. F. Holbrook, Roman Catholic

No	76
Date of Notice	30 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Edward Olding	Margaret Bourke
	💍 1918/194
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	6 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland
Folio	401
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev H. F. Holbrook, Roman Catholic

31 January 1918

Charles Robert Beaven
Adela Louise Harling

Charles Robert Beaven
Adela Louise Harling
💍 1918/195

Bachelor
Widow (19 March 1911)

Sign Writer

44
35

Auckland
Auckland

4 weeks
2 years

Anglican Church, Takapuna

402

31 January 1918

Rev W. Monckton, Anglican

No	77
Date of Notice	31 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Robert Beaven	Adela Louise Harling
	💍 1918/195
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (19 March 1911)
Profession	Sign Writer
Age	44	35
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 weeks	2 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Takapuna
Folio	402
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Monckton, Anglican

31 January 1918

Frederick Charles Brown
Inez Octavia Hoffmann

Frederick Charles Brewin
Inez Octavia Hoffmann
💍 1918/196

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

26
21

Auckland
Auckland

life
6 months

House of Mrs Hoffmann, New Windsor Rd, Avondale

403

31 January 1918

Rev P. B. Inglis, Presbyterian

No	78
Date of Notice	31 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Charles Brown	Inez Octavia Hoffmann
BDM Match (96%)	Frederick Charles Brewin	Inez Octavia Hoffmann
	💍 1918/196
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	life	6 months
Marriage Place	House of Mrs Hoffmann, New Windsor Rd, Avondale
Folio	403
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev P. B. Inglis, Presbyterian

31 January 1918

Harold Fenton Heald
Lydia Gwendolyn Downey

Harold Fenton Heald
Lydia Gwendolyn Downey
💍 1918/197

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

33
29

Auckland
Auckland

3 months
20 years

St Mary's Cathedral, Parnell

404

31 January 1918

Rev H. A. Hawkins, Anglican

No	79
Date of Notice	31 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Fenton Heald	Lydia Gwendolyn Downey
	💍 1918/197
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	33	29
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 months	20 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Cathedral, Parnell
Folio	404
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev H. A. Hawkins, Anglican

1 February 1918

Ernest David Ball
Adelaide Victoria Cantell

Ernest David Ball
Adelaide Victoria Cantell
💍 1918/198

Bachelor
Spinster

French Polisher

20
22

Auckland
Auckland

20 years
22 years

Registrar's Office, Auckland

405

Elizabeth Catherine Ball, mother

1 February 1918

Registrar

No	80
Date of Notice	1 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest David Ball	Adelaide Victoria Cantell
	💍 1918/198
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	French Polisher
Age	20	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	20 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	405
Consent	Elizabeth Catherine Ball, mother
Date of Certificate	1 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).