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 953

District of Patea Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar G. Ormsby

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

10 July 1918

William Marshall
Mary McCarthy

William Marshall
Mary McCarthy
💍 1918/4744

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
Domestic duties

29
25

Hurleyville
Hurleyville

1 year
25 years

Residence of Patrick McCarthy, Hurleyville

4265

12 July 1918

Rev Edward Duffy, Roman Catholic Priest

No	6
Date of Notice	10 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Marshall	Mary McCarthy
	💍 1918/4744
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Domestic duties
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Hurleyville	Hurleyville
Length of Residence	1 year	25 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Patrick McCarthy, Hurleyville
Folio	4265
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev Edward Duffy, Roman Catholic Priest

16 July 1918

Claude Petch
Muriel Ida Simons

Claude Petch
Muriel Ida Simons
💍 1918/4745

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Clerk

22
21

Patea
Stratford

3 weeks
5 days

Methodist Church, Patea

4266

16 July 1918

Rev Wm Watson, Methodist Minister

No	7
Date of Notice	16 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Petch	Muriel Ida Simons
	💍 1918/4745
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Clerk
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Patea	Stratford
Length of Residence	3 weeks	5 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Patea
Folio	4266
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev Wm Watson, Methodist Minister

5 August 1918

Frederick Bidwell
Mary Magdalen Lennon

Frederick Bidwell
Mary Magdalene Lennon
💍 1918/4746

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

34
32

Patea
Patea

3 days
3 days

Residence of Mrs Erns Bremner, Crescent Falls, Whenuakura

4267

5 August 1918

Rev Edward Duffy, Roman Catholic Priest

No	8
Date of Notice	5 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Bidwell	Mary Magdalen Lennon
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick Bidwell	Mary Magdalene Lennon
	💍 1918/4746
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	34	32
Dwelling Place	Patea	Patea
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Erns Bremner, Crescent Falls, Whenuakura
Folio	4267
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev Edward Duffy, Roman Catholic Priest

2 September 1918

Herbert Hereward Edwards
Alice Muriel Honeyfield

Herbert Hereward Edwards
Alice Muriel Honeyfield
💍 1918/4747

Widower
Spinster

Orchardist
Hospital nurse

44
27

Patea
Patea

5 days
3 weeks

St Georges Anglican Church, Egmont St Patea

4268

2 September 1918

Rev A S Barnett, Church of England

No	9
Date of Notice	2 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Hereward Edwards	Alice Muriel Honeyfield
	💍 1918/4747
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Orchardist	Hospital nurse
Age	44	27
Dwelling Place	Patea	Patea
Length of Residence	5 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St Georges Anglican Church, Egmont St Patea
Folio	4268
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev A S Barnett, Church of England

3 September 1918

Louis Norbye
Mabel Elvira Thomson

Louis Nordbye
Mabel Elvira Thomson
💍 1918/4748

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Clerk

21
19

Patea
Patea

5 days
1 week

Registrar's Office, Patea

4269

William Malcolm Thomson, Father

3 September 1918

George Ormsby, Registrar B D + M.

No	10
Date of Notice	3 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Norbye	Mabel Elvira Thomson
BDM Match (96%)	Louis Nordbye	Mabel Elvira Thomson
	💍 1918/4748
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Clerk
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Patea	Patea
Length of Residence	5 days	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Patea
Folio	4269
Consent	William Malcolm Thomson, Father
Date of Certificate	3 September 1918
Officiating Minister	George Ormsby, Registrar B D + M.

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).