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 897

District of Inglewood Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar W. Barry

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

12 July 1918

Frederick Walter Read
Annie Milton Asher

Frederick Walter Read
Annie Bilton Asher
💍 1918/1522

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dressmaker

28
35

Tariki
Tariki

5 days
5 days

Methodist Church Tariki

1232

12 July 1918

J. Souster

No	8
Date of Notice	12 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Walter Read	Annie Milton Asher
BDM Match (97%)	Frederick Walter Read	Annie Bilton Asher
	💍 1918/1522
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	28	35
Dwelling Place	Tariki	Tariki
Length of Residence	5 days	5 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Tariki
Folio	1232
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 July 1918
Officiating Minister	J. Souster

29 July 1918

Arthur William Lowe
Ada Amelia Thompson

Arthur William Lowe
Ada Amelia Thompson
💍 1918/1523

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

26
19

Tariki
Tariki

6 months
18 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages Inglewood

1233

George Thompson, Father

29 July 1918

W. Barry, Registrar

No	9
Date of Notice	29 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur William Lowe	Ada Amelia Thompson
	💍 1918/1523
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Tariki	Tariki
Length of Residence	6 months	18 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Inglewood
Folio	1233
Consent	George Thompson, Father
Date of Certificate	29 July 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Barry, Registrar

26 August 1918

John Wiggins
Margaret Julia McMahon

John Diggins
Margaret Julia McMahon
💍 1918/1524

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

47
26

Inglewood
Inglewood

4 years
26 years

Roman Catholic Church Inglewood

1234

26 August 1918

Rev. Honan

No	10
Date of Notice	26 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Wiggins	Margaret Julia McMahon
BDM Match (96%)	John Diggins	Margaret Julia McMahon
	💍 1918/1524
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	47	26
Dwelling Place	Inglewood	Inglewood
Length of Residence	4 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Inglewood
Folio	1234
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Honan

2 September 1918

George William Kilsby
Ruth Lawrence

George William Kilsby
Ruth Laurence
💍 1918/1501

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

25
26

Tariki
Tariki

5 years
26 years

Church of England Tariki

1235

2 September 1918

Rev. Harvie

No	11
Date of Notice	2 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George William Kilsby	Ruth Lawrence
BDM Match (96%)	George William Kilsby	Ruth Laurence
	💍 1918/1501
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Tariki	Tariki
Length of Residence	5 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Tariki
Folio	1235
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Harvie

9 September 1918

Herbert Henry Upjohn
Myra Longstaff

Herbert Henry Upson
Myra Longstaff
💍 1918/1502

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

42
21

Egmont Village
Egmont Village

9 years
5 years

Methodist Church Inglewood

1236

9 September 1918

Rev. Harvie

No	12
Date of Notice	9 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Henry Upjohn	Myra Longstaff
BDM Match (95%)	Herbert Henry Upson	Myra Longstaff
	💍 1918/1502
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	42	21
Dwelling Place	Egmont Village	Egmont Village
Length of Residence	9 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Inglewood
Folio	1236
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Harvie

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).