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 1013

District of Hastings Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar Robert Brathwaite

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

23 April 1918

James Robert Clearkin
Ivy Helen Stanley

James Robert Clearkin
Ivy Helen Stanley
💍 1918/3048

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic duties

22
22

Hastings
Hastings

3 days
22 years

St. Matthews Church, Hastings

2665

23 April 1918

Rev. J. B. Brocklehurst

No	34
Date of Notice	23 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Robert Clearkin	Ivy Helen Stanley
	💍 1918/3048
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic duties
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	3 days	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Hastings
Folio	2665
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Brocklehurst

23 April 1918

Arthur Joseph Yeo
Mona Catherine Corless

Arthur Joseph Yeo
Mona Catherine Corless
💍 1918/3049

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic duties

24
20

Hastings
Hastings

5 years
20 years

Catholic Presbytery, Hastings

2666

James Corless, Father

23 April 1918

Rev. Father Mahoney

No	35
Date of Notice	23 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Joseph Yeo	Mona Catherine Corless
	💍 1918/3049
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic duties
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	5 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Presbytery, Hastings
Folio	2666
Consent	James Corless, Father
Date of Certificate	23 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Mahoney

24 April 1918

Edward Constable
Mary Ellen Wales

Edward Constable
Mary Ellen Wales
💍 1918/3050

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer
Domestic duties

37
42

Hastings
Hastings

11 years
5 years

Catholic Church, Hastings

2667

24 April 1918

Rev. Father Mahoney

No	36
Date of Notice	24 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Constable	Mary Ellen Wales
	💍 1918/3050
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	37	42
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	11 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Church, Hastings
Folio	2667
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Mahoney

26 April 1918

Clarence Richard Thomas
Doris Kate Hooker

Clarence Richard Thomas
Doris Kate Hooker
💍 1918/3051

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Lady Help

21
22

Hastings
Waipukurau

3 days
over 3 days

Methodist Church, Hastings

2668

26 April 1918

Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt

No	37
Date of Notice	26 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Richard Thomas	Doris Kate Hooker
	💍 1918/3051
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Lady Help
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	3 days	over 3 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Hastings
Folio	2668
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt

27 April 1918

Leonard Henry Sigglekow
Doris Harriet Cheer

Leonard Henry Sigglekow
Doris Harriet Cheer
💍 1918/3052

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine Driver, New Zealand Railways
Domestic duties

27
21

Napier
Hastings

2 years
3 days

St. Matthews Church, Hastings

2669

27 April 1918

Rev. H. Blathwayt

No	38
Date of Notice	27 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Henry Sigglekow	Doris Harriet Cheer
	💍 1918/3052
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine Driver, New Zealand Railways	Domestic duties
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Napier	Hastings
Length of Residence	2 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Hastings
Folio	2669
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Blathwayt

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).