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 1043

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 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

9 July 1918

James O'Brien
Mary Jane Lilliquist

James O'Brien
Mary Jane Lilliquist
💍 1918/4788

Bachelor
Widow 19 February 1917

Labourer
Nurse

49
42

Napier
Napier

7 years
9 years

Registrar's Office Napier

4326

9 July 1918

W. Buchanan Registrar

No	56
Date of Notice	9 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James O'Brien	Mary Jane Lilliquist
	💍 1918/4788
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 19 February 1917
Profession	Labourer	Nurse
Age	49	42
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	7 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	4326
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 July 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan Registrar

15 July 1918

Harry Hayward Smith
Sarah Esther Slatter

Harry Hayward Smith
Sarah Esther Slatter
💍 1918/4799

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier late Carpenter
Domestic

33
27

Napier
Napier

8 years
2 years

St Augustine's Church Napier

4327

15 July 1918

Rev. H. J. Simkin Church of England

No	57
Date of Notice	15 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Hayward Smith	Sarah Esther Slatter
	💍 1918/4799
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier late Carpenter	Domestic
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	8 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Augustine's Church Napier
Folio	4327
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. J. Simkin Church of England

17 July 1918

Percy George Ayres
Annie Elizabeth Skittrup

Percy George Ayres
Annie Elizabeth Skittrup
💍 1918/4806

Bachelor
Spinster

Letter Carrier
Domestic

30
23

Napier
Napier

7 years
12 years

Registrar's Office Napier

4328

17 July 1918

W. Buchanan Registrar

No	58
Date of Notice	17 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy George Ayres	Annie Elizabeth Skittrup
	💍 1918/4806
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Letter Carrier	Domestic
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	7 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	4328
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan Registrar

19 July 1918

John Shearer
Mary Ann Fritchley

John Shearer
Mary Ann Fitchley
💍 1918/4807

Bachelor
Spinster

Horse Driver
Domestic Duties

49
33

Napier
Napier

2 years
33 years

St Augustine's Church Napier

4329

19 July 1918

Rev. J. Hobbs Church of England

No	59
Date of Notice	19 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Shearer	Mary Ann Fritchley
BDM Match (97%)	John Shearer	Mary Ann Fitchley
	💍 1918/4807
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Horse Driver	Domestic Duties
Age	49	33
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	2 years	33 years
Marriage Place	St Augustine's Church Napier
Folio	4329
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Hobbs Church of England

20 July 1918

William Arbor Hopkins
Jeanie Crawford Junk

William Arbor Hopkins
Jeanie Crawford Junk
💍 1918/4808

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
Shop Assistant

25
24

Napier
Napier

2 years
3 years

Residence of John Junk Macdonald Street Napier

4330

20 July 1918

Rev. William Douglas Presbyterian

No	60
Date of Notice	20 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arbor Hopkins	Jeanie Crawford Junk
	💍 1918/4808
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	Shop Assistant
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of John Junk Macdonald Street Napier
Folio	4330
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Douglas Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).