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 853

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar S. Bird

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

8 July 1918

John Stanley Findlater
Aileen Alberta Drake

John Stanley Findlater
Aileen Alberta Drake
💍 1918/4689

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Housemaid

26
19

Whangarei
Whangarei

26 years
19 years

The Residence of Mr Francis Drake, 1st Avenue, Whangarei

4210

Elizabeth Drake, Mother

8 July 1918

Rev. D. C. Stewart, Presbyterian Minister

No	18
Date of Notice	8 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stanley Findlater	Aileen Alberta Drake
	💍 1918/4689
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Housemaid
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	26 years	19 years
Marriage Place	The Residence of Mr Francis Drake, 1st Avenue, Whangarei
Folio	4210
Consent	Elizabeth Drake, Mother
Date of Certificate	8 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. C. Stewart, Presbyterian Minister

17 July 1918

Sydney Ernest MacDonald
Maud Mary Griffin

Sydney Ernest MacDonald
Maud Mary Griffin
💍 1918/4690

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic

28
17

Whangarei Falls
Whangarei

9 months
17 years

Registrar's Office, Whangarei

4211

Charles Griffin, Father

17 July 1918

S. Bird, Registrar

No	19
Date of Notice	17 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Ernest MacDonald	Maud Mary Griffin
	💍 1918/4690
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	28	17
Dwelling Place	Whangarei Falls	Whangarei
Length of Residence	9 months	17 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Whangarei
Folio	4211
Consent	Charles Griffin, Father
Date of Certificate	17 July 1918
Officiating Minister	S. Bird, Registrar

20 July 1918

John Paton Johnson
Ellen Henry

John Paton Johnson
Ellen Henry
💍 1918/4691

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

38
22

Dargaville
Mangonui

38 years
12 months

Church of England, Whangarei

4212

20 July 1918

Rev. R. F. Geddes, Church of England Minister

No	20
Date of Notice	20 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Paton Johnson	Ellen Henry
	💍 1918/4691
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	38	22
Dwelling Place	Dargaville	Mangonui
Length of Residence	38 years	12 months
Marriage Place	Church of England, Whangarei
Folio	4212
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. F. Geddes, Church of England Minister

26 July 1918

William Featherstone Smith
Amelia Lubeck

William Featherstone Smith
Amelia Lubeck
💍 1918/4692

Widower (Wife not heard of for 13 years)
Widow

Engineer
Domestic

55
52

Onerahi
Onerahi

18 months
18 months

Registrar's Office, Whangarei

4213

26 July 1918

S. Bird, Registrar

No	21
Date of Notice	26 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Featherstone Smith	Amelia Lubeck
	💍 1918/4692
Condition	Widower (Wife not heard of for 13 years)	Widow
Profession	Engineer	Domestic
Age	55	52
Dwelling Place	Onerahi	Onerahi
Length of Residence	18 months	18 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Whangarei
Folio	4213
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1918
Officiating Minister	S. Bird, Registrar

1 August 1918

Jordan Henry Sammons
Agnes Paru

Jordan Henry Sammons
Agnes Paru
💍 1918/4693

Bachelor
Spinster

Bushman
Domestic

38
28

Whangarei
Whangarei

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Whangarei

4214

1 August 1918

S. Bird, Registrar

No	22
Date of Notice	1 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jordan Henry Sammons	Agnes Paru
	💍 1918/4693
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bushman	Domestic
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Whangarei
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Whangarei
Folio	4214
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1918
Officiating Minister	S. Bird, 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).