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 1039

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar W. Buchanan

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

6 June 1918

Frederick Stanley Howard
Doris Olive Anderson

Frederick Stanley Howard
Doris Olive Anderson
💍 1918/3092

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dentist Assistant

24
20

Taradale
Napier

24 years
20 years

Registrar's Office, Napier

2701

Daniel Anderson, Father

6 June 1918

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	44
Date of Notice	6 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Stanley Howard	Doris Olive Anderson
	💍 1918/3092
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dentist Assistant
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Taradale	Napier
Length of Residence	24 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Napier
Folio	2701
Consent	Daniel Anderson, Father
Date of Certificate	6 June 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

7 June 1918

John Harvey Sims
Dorothy Edith Mitchell

John Harvey Suris
Dorothy Edith Mitchell
💍 1918/3103

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
Domestic

33
23

Westshore
Westshore

33 years
3 years

St. Augustine's Church, Napier

2702

7 June 1918

Rev. W. J. Simkin, Church of England

No	45
Date of Notice	7 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Harvey Sims	Dorothy Edith Mitchell
BDM Match (91%)	John Harvey Suris	Dorothy Edith Mitchell
	💍 1918/3103
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	Domestic
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Westshore	Westshore
Length of Residence	33 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church, Napier
Folio	2702
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Simkin, Church of England

7 June 1918

Joseph Charles Brown
Winifred Helen McRobbie

Joseph Charles Brown
Winifred Helen McRobbie
💍 1918/3110

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

33
23

Kissington
Te Pohue

6 months
12 years

Residence of W. McRobbie, Te Pohue

2703

7 June 1918

Rev. J. H. Boyd, Presbyterian

No	46
Date of Notice	7 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Charles Brown	Winifred Helen McRobbie
	💍 1918/3110
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	23
Dwelling Place	Kissington	Te Pohue
Length of Residence	6 months	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of W. McRobbie, Te Pohue
Folio	2703
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Boyd, Presbyterian

11 June 1918

William Henry Charles Proctor
Isabella Young

William Henry Charles Proctor
Isabella Young
💍 1918/3111

William Perrett Mead
Isabel Young
💍 1918/1897

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruitgrower
Machinist

28
32

Port Ahuriri
Port Ahuriri

3 days
32 years

Residence of Mrs. Bell, Colin Street, Port Ahuriri

2704

11 June 1918

Rev. J. H. Boyd, Presbyterian

No	47
Date of Notice	11 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Charles Proctor	Isabella Young
	💍 1918/3111
BDM Match (64%)	William Perrett Mead	Isabel Young
	💍 1918/1897
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruitgrower	Machinist
Age	28	32
Dwelling Place	Port Ahuriri	Port Ahuriri
Length of Residence	3 days	32 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Bell, Colin Street, Port Ahuriri
Folio	2704
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Boyd, Presbyterian

11 June 1918

Alfred Edwards Hunter
Ida Andrea Monson

Alfred Edwards Hunter
Ida Andrea Monson
💍 1918/3112

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

45
29

Napier
Westshore

1 week
29 years

Registrar's Office, Napier

2705

11 June 1918

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	48
Date of Notice	11 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Edwards Hunter	Ida Andrea Monson
	💍 1918/3112
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	45	29
Dwelling Place	Napier	Westshore
Length of Residence	1 week	29 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Napier
Folio	2705
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, 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).