Intentions to Marry, 1918 Aria to Hunterville

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840477, 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.

1918c contains pages 865-1248, covering districts from Aria to Hunterville

Page 889

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 December 1918 Registrar G. H. Arnold

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

02 October 1918

William John Rae
Marion Hilda Parry

William John Rae
Marion Hilda Parry
💍 1918/6069

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker
Domestic Duties

33
20

Hawera
Hawera

6 Months
2 Years

Residence of Bertha Mary Elms, Wellington St, Hawera

5718

Bertha Mary Elms, Mother

02 October 1918

Rev. H. B. Gray, Presbyterian

No	36
Date of Notice	02 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Rae	Marion Hilda Parry
	💍 1918/6069
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker	Domestic Duties
Age	33	20
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	6 Months	2 Years
Marriage Place	Residence of Bertha Mary Elms, Wellington St, Hawera
Folio	5718
Consent	Bertha Mary Elms, Mother
Date of Certificate	02 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Gray, Presbyterian

02 October 1918

Terence Malone
Sybil Cathrine Thurston

Terence Malone
Sybil Catherine Thurston
💍 1918/6070

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

28
21

Hawera
Hawera

3 days
2 Years

Roman Catholic Church, Hawera

5719

02 October 1918

Rev. Dean P. Power, Roman Catholic

No	37
Date of Notice	02 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Terence Malone	Sybil Cathrine Thurston
BDM Match (98%)	Terence Malone	Sybil Catherine Thurston
	💍 1918/6070
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	3 days	2 Years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hawera
Folio	5719
Consent
Date of Certificate	02 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dean P. Power, Roman Catholic

15 October 1918

Frederick William Nickel
Flora Charlotte Violet Drury

Frederick William Nickel
Flora Charlotte Violet Drury
💍 1918/6071

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesemaker
Domestic Duties

20
20

Hawera
Hawera

6 Years
12 Years

Church of England, Hawera

5720

Frederick William Nickel Father, Flora Louisa Drury Mother

15 October 1918

Rev. C. A. Grant Bowen, Anglican

No	38
Date of Notice	15 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Nickel	Flora Charlotte Violet Drury
	💍 1918/6071
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesemaker	Domestic Duties
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	6 Years	12 Years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Hawera
Folio	5720
Consent	Frederick William Nickel Father, Flora Louisa Drury Mother
Date of Certificate	15 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Grant Bowen, Anglican

15 October 1918

John Chippin Robins
Lucy May Campbell

John Chipplin Robins
Lucy May Campbell
💍 1918/3469

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Saleswoman

31
30

Hawera
Dunedin

16 Months
3 days

St Matthews Church of England, Dunedin

5069

15 October 1918

Rev. W. Curzon-Siggers, Anglican

No	39
Date of Notice	15 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Chippin Robins	Lucy May Campbell
BDM Match (98%)	John Chipplin Robins	Lucy May Campbell
	💍 1918/3469
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Saleswoman
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Dunedin
Length of Residence	16 Months	3 days
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church of England, Dunedin
Folio	5069
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Curzon-Siggers, Anglican

31 October 1918

William Lewis Fell
Lydia Gunson

William Lewis Fell
Lydia Gunson
💍 1918/6073

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesepacker
Lady Help

27
22

Hawera
Hawera

Three Months
Two Months

Registrars Office, Hawera

5721

31 October 1918

The Registrar, Hawera

No	40
Date of Notice	31 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lewis Fell	Lydia Gunson
	💍 1918/6073
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesepacker	Lady Help
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Hawera	Hawera
Length of Residence	Three Months	Two Months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Hawera
Folio	5721
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1918
Officiating Minister	The Registrar, Hawera

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).