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 981

District of Waitara Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar T. Cole

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

9 July 1918

William Frederick Cleaver
Ada Violet Chapman

William Frederick Cleaver
Ada Violet Chapman
💍 1918/4766

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School Teacher

31
23

Tahora Waitara
Waitara

Four days
Five weeks

St John's Church Waitara

4287

9 July 1918

Revd A H Barnett Church of England Waitara

No	12
Date of Notice	9 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Frederick Cleaver	Ada Violet Chapman
	💍 1918/4766
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School Teacher
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Tahora Waitara	Waitara
Length of Residence	Four days	Five weeks
Marriage Place	St John's Church Waitara
Folio	4287
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Revd A H Barnett Church of England Waitara

3 July 1918

Christopher Topless
Alice Matilda Honeyfield

Christopher Topless
Alice Matilda Honeyfield
💍 1918/4767

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

35
27

Mokauiti
Urenui

35 years
27 years

A J Honeyfield Dwelling Urenui

4288

6 July 1918

Revd A.H. Barnett Church of England Urenui

No	13
Date of Notice	3 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Topless	Alice Matilda Honeyfield
	💍 1918/4767
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	Mokauiti	Urenui
Length of Residence	35 years	27 years
Marriage Place	A J Honeyfield Dwelling Urenui
Folio	4288
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Revd A.H. Barnett Church of England Urenui

9 August 1918

Tom Hayward
Emma Rattenbury

Tom Hayward
Emma Rattenbury
💍 1918/4768

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

48
45

Okau
Waitara

17 years
11 years

St John's Church Waitara

4289

13 August 1918

Revd A H Barnett Church of England Waitara

No	14
Date of Notice	9 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Tom Hayward	Emma Rattenbury
	💍 1918/4768
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	48	45
Dwelling Place	Okau	Waitara
Length of Residence	17 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church Waitara
Folio	4289
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Revd A H Barnett Church of England Waitara

19 August 1918

Edward Noel Clare
Myrtle Olive McArthur

Edward Lionel Clare
Myrtle Olive McArthur
💍 1918/4769

Bachelor
Spinster

Tobacconist
Waitress

24
18

Waitara
Waitara

24 years
4 years

St John's Church Waitara

4290

Duncan McArthur Father

22 August 1918

The Venerable Archdeacon Evans Church of England Waitara

No	15
Date of Notice	19 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Noel Clare	Myrtle Olive McArthur
BDM Match (92%)	Edward Lionel Clare	Myrtle Olive McArthur
	💍 1918/4769
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tobacconist	Waitress
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Waitara	Waitara
Length of Residence	24 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church Waitara
Folio	4290
Consent	Duncan McArthur Father
Date of Certificate	22 August 1918
Officiating Minister	The Venerable Archdeacon Evans Church of England Waitara

7 September 1918

Charles Augustus Rumbal
Ellen Boyle Moore

Charles Augustus Rumbal
Ellen Boyle Moore
💍 1918/4770

Widower
Divorced

Farmer
Domestic

52
49

Urenui
Urenui

22 years
10 years

Residence of C a Rumbal Urenui

4291

7 September 1918

C E Perkins Presbyterian Church Waitara

No	16
Date of Notice	7 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Augustus Rumbal	Ellen Boyle Moore
	💍 1918/4770
Condition	Widower	Divorced
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	52	49
Dwelling Place	Urenui	Urenui
Length of Residence	22 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of C a Rumbal Urenui
Folio	4291
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 September 1918
Officiating Minister	C E Perkins Presbyterian Church Waitara

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).