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 1029

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 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

3 January 1918

Eric Parkes Amner
Pearl Sporle

Eric Parkes Amner
Pearl Sporle
💍 1918/1284

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Dressmaker

25
21

Napier
Napier

25 years
2 years

St. Augustine's Church, Napier

1072

3 January 1918

Rev. C. T. Rice, Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Parkes Amner	Pearl Sporle
	💍 1918/1284
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Dressmaker
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	25 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church, Napier
Folio	1072
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. T. Rice, Church of England

3 January 1918

Bertie Nicholls
Elizabeth Maud Lee

Bertie Nicholls
Elizabeth Maud Lee
💍 1918/1285

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

38
21

Clive
Clive

38 years
14 days

Registrar's Office, Napier

1073

3 January 1918

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	3 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bertie Nicholls	Elizabeth Maud Lee
	💍 1918/1285
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	38	21
Dwelling Place	Clive	Clive
Length of Residence	38 years	14 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Napier
Folio	1073
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

4 January 1918

Walter Cowan
Daisy Bruntlett

Walter Cowan
Daisy Bruntlett
💍 1918/1286

Bachelor
Divorced 4th January 1918

Transport Worker
Domestic Duties

42
34

Greenmeadows
Greenmeadows

14 days
34 years

Presbyterian Church, Taradale

1074

4 January 1918

Rev. R. F. Fish, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	4 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Cowan	Daisy Bruntlett
	💍 1918/1286
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced 4th January 1918
Profession	Transport Worker	Domestic Duties
Age	42	34
Dwelling Place	Greenmeadows	Greenmeadows
Length of Residence	14 days	34 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Taradale
Folio	1074
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. F. Fish, Presbyterian

8 January 1918

Edward Louis Jeffares
Beatrice Emily Codd

Edward Louis Jeffares
Beatrice Emily Codd
💍 1918/1295

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

27
26

Greenmeadows
Taradale

27 years
5 years

Anglican Church, Taradale

1076

8 January 1918

Rev. J. Hobbs, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	8 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Louis Jeffares	Beatrice Emily Codd
	💍 1918/1295
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Greenmeadows	Taradale
Length of Residence	27 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Taradale
Folio	1076
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Hobbs, Church of England

12 January 1918

James Malcolm Barclay
Ellen Josephine Lodge

James Malcolm Barclay
Ellen Josephine Lodge
💍 1918/1287

Bachelor
Spinster

Traveller
Dressmaker

37
29

Napier
Napier

3 days
7 years

The Manse, Lincoln Road, Napier

1075

12 January 1918

Rev. J. A. Asher, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	12 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Malcolm Barclay	Ellen Josephine Lodge
	💍 1918/1287
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Traveller	Dressmaker
Age	37	29
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	3 days	7 years
Marriage Place	The Manse, Lincoln Road, Napier
Folio	1075
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Asher, Presbyterian

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).