Intentions to Marry, 1918 Kuaotunu to Whangaroa

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840476, 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.

1918b contains pages 433-864, covering districts from Kuaotunu to Whangaroa

Page 585

District of Opotiki Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar G. D. Stephenson

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

7 February 1918

Henry Kelly
Mere Mila

Henry Kelly
Mere Mita
💍 1918/506

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

22
22

Opotiki
Opotiki

10 years
1 year

St Stephen's Church Opotiki

916

7 February 1918

Rev Thomas Fisher

No	1
Date of Notice	7 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Kelly	Mere Mila
BDM Match (94%)	Henry Kelly	Mere Mita
	💍 1918/506
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	10 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St Stephen's Church Opotiki
Folio	916
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas Fisher

26 February 1918

Edward Workman
Evelyn May Whitford

Edward Workman
Evelyn May Whitford
💍 1918/507

Bachelor
Divorced 19/2/1918

Cheese factory manager
Domestic duties

34
30

Waiotahi
Waiotahi

6 years
4 days

at the office of the Registrar Opotiki

917

26 February 1918

G D Stephenson Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	26 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Workman	Evelyn May Whitford
	💍 1918/507
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced 19/2/1918
Profession	Cheese factory manager	Domestic duties
Age	34	30
Dwelling Place	Waiotahi	Waiotahi
Length of Residence	6 years	4 days
Marriage Place	at the office of the Registrar Opotiki
Folio	917
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1918
Officiating Minister	G D Stephenson Registrar

4 March 1918

Kenneth Stanton Brown
Edith Matilda Lees

Kenneth Stanton Brown
Edith Matilda Lees
💍 1918/508

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

27
18

Opotiki
Opotiki

24 years
18 months

at the residence of Mr John Alexander Lees Otara Road Opotiki

918

John Alexander Lees

4 March 1918

Rev Robert Francis

No	3
Date of Notice	4 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Stanton Brown	Edith Matilda Lees
	💍 1918/508
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	27	18
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	24 years	18 months
Marriage Place	at the residence of Mr John Alexander Lees Otara Road Opotiki
Folio	918
Consent	John Alexander Lees
Date of Certificate	4 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev Robert Francis

11 March 1918

Ivan Tristram Mcnaught
Jessie Foy

Ivan Tristram Mcnaught
Jessie Foy
💍 1918/509

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Domestic duties

23
22

Opotiki
Opotiki

2 1/2 years
9 years

at the office of the Registrar Opotiki

919

11 March 1918

G D Stephenson Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	11 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ivan Tristram Mcnaught	Jessie Foy
	💍 1918/509
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Domestic duties
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Opotiki	Opotiki
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	9 years
Marriage Place	at the office of the Registrar Opotiki
Folio	919
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1918
Officiating Minister	G D Stephenson Registrar

14 March 1918

Haenga Te Pirini
Ripeka Hurae

Haenga Te Pirini
Ripeka Hurae
💍 1918/510

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

23
22

Te Kaha
Te Kaha

Since birth
Two years

at the office of the Registrar Opotiki

920

14 March 1918

G D Stephenson Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	14 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Haenga Te Pirini	Ripeka Hurae
	💍 1918/510
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Te Kaha	Te Kaha
Length of Residence	Since birth	Two years
Marriage Place	at the office of the Registrar Opotiki
Folio	920
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1918
Officiating Minister	G D Stephenson 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).