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 665

District of Rotorua Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar Wm. J. Reeve

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

5 January 1918

Harry Richardson
Elma Annie Swanson

Harry Richardson
Elma Annie Swanson
💍 1918/1191

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Cook

22
22

Rotorua
Rotorua

6 months
2 years

Registrars Office Rotorua

931

5 January 1918

Wm. J. Reeve Registrar of marriages

No	1
Date of Notice	5 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Richardson	Elma Annie Swanson
	💍 1918/1191
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Cook
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	6 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Rotorua
Folio	931
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Wm. J. Reeve Registrar of marriages

14 January 1918

Joseph Arthur Ligham
Ellen O'Connor

Joseph Arthur Higham
Ellen OConnor
💍 1918/1192

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Housemaid

32
26

Rotorua
Rotorua

5 months
9 months

Roman Catholic Church Rotorua

932

14 January 1918

Rev. Dean Adrian Lightheart Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	14 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Arthur Ligham	Ellen O'Connor
BDM Match (94%)	Joseph Arthur Higham	Ellen OConnor
	💍 1918/1192
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Housemaid
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	5 months	9 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Rotorua
Folio	932
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dean Adrian Lightheart Roman Catholic

17 January 1918

Richard Alexander McKeagg
Mildred Florence Ward

Richard Alexander McKeagg
Mildred Florence Ward
💍 1918/1193

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Housemaid

25
24

Rotorua
Rotorua

6 months
1.5 years

Methodist Church Rotorua

933

17 January 1918

Rev. John Nixon Methodist

No	3
Date of Notice	17 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Alexander McKeagg	Mildred Florence Ward
	💍 1918/1193
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Housemaid
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	6 months	1.5 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Rotorua
Folio	933
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Nixon Methodist

28 January 1918

Arthur Lindsay Gordon
Ivy Eileen Parkinson

Arthur Lindsay Gordon
Ivy Eileen Parkinson
💍 1918/1194

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor driver
Domestic

20
17

Rotorua
Rotorua

4 days
4 days

Church of England Rotorua

934

Marion Gordon mother, Edmund Walter Parkinson father

28 January 1918

Rev. K. E. Maclean Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	28 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Lindsay Gordon	Ivy Eileen Parkinson
	💍 1918/1194
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor driver	Domestic
Age	20	17
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Church of England Rotorua
Folio	934
Consent	Marion Gordon mother, Edmund Walter Parkinson father
Date of Certificate	28 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. K. E. Maclean Church of England

13 February 1918

Leonard Andrew Ellis
Vida Jenkins

Leonard Andrew Ellis
Vida Jenkins
💍 1918/1195

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter
Domestic

31
21

Rotorua
Rotorua

2 years
18 months

Registrars Office Rotorua

935

13 February 1918

Wm. J. Reeve Registrar of marriages

No	5
Date of Notice	13 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Andrew Ellis	Vida Jenkins
	💍 1918/1195
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter	Domestic
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	Rotorua	Rotorua
Length of Residence	2 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Rotorua
Folio	935
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Wm. J. Reeve Registrar of marriages

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).