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 849

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar J. Pira

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

1/18

7 January 1918

Reginald John James
Mary Margaret Irvine

Reginald John James
Mary Margaret Irvine
💍 1918/1243

Widower 23/9/1916
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic

30
43

Whangarei
Whangarei

3 years
2 weeks

Presbyterian Manse Whangarei

984

7 January 1918

Rev. Wm Day Presbyterian Minister

No	1/18
Date of Notice	7 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald John James	Mary Margaret Irvine
	💍 1918/1243
Condition	Widower 23/9/1916	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic
Age	30	43
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	3 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse Whangarei
Folio	984
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm Day Presbyterian Minister

2/18

11 January 1918

Thomas Lawrence Ranstead
Flora Finlayson

Thomas Lawrence Ranstead
Flora Finlayson
💍 1918/1244

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic

28
23

Kamo
Kamo

1 day
23 years

Residence of Mrs A. Finlayson Kamo

985

11 January 1918

Rev. D. B. Stewart Presbyterian Minister

No	2/18
Date of Notice	11 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Lawrence Ranstead	Flora Finlayson
	💍 1918/1244
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Kamo	Kamo
Length of Residence	1 day	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs A. Finlayson Kamo
Folio	985
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. B. Stewart Presbyterian Minister

3/18

11 February 1918

William Cronin
Mary Alice Cleary

William Cronin
Mary Alice Cleary
💍 1918/1222

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Schoolteacher

23
21

Whangarei
Maunu

3 days
3 months

St John's Church Maunu

986

11 February 1918

Rev. W. E. Lush Church of England Minister

No	3/18
Date of Notice	11 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Cronin	Mary Alice Cleary
	💍 1918/1222
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Schoolteacher
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Maunu
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months
Marriage Place	St John's Church Maunu
Folio	986
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. E. Lush Church of England Minister

4/18

16 February 1918

Arthur Clifford George McNulty
Daisy Madeline Raine

Arthur Clifford George McNulty
Daisy Madeline Raine
💍 1918/1223

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School Teacher

31
23

Whangarei
Whangarei

2 months
2 months

Methodist Church Whangarei

987

16 February 1918

Rev. J. R. Clarke Methodist Minister

No	4/18
Date of Notice	16 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Clifford George McNulty	Daisy Madeline Raine
	💍 1918/1223
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School Teacher
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Whangarei
Folio	987
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Clarke Methodist Minister

5/18

13 March 1918

George William Greenhalgh
Maud Elizabeth Hiscock

George William Greenhalgh
Maud Elizabeth Hiscock
💍 1918/1224

Widower 27/7/1908
Divorced 10/9/1915

Labourer
Domestic

53
45

Whangarei
Whangarei

4 days
4.5 years

Methodist Church Whangarei

988

13 March 1918

Rev. J. R. Clarke Methodist Minister

No	5/18
Date of Notice	13 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George William Greenhalgh	Maud Elizabeth Hiscock
	💍 1918/1224
Condition	Widower 27/7/1908	Divorced 10/9/1915
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	53	45
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	4 days	4.5 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Whangarei
Folio	988
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Clarke Methodist Minister

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).