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 1207

District of Feilding Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar E. G. Stapleton

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

2 April 1918

James Kean Paterson
Esther Charlotte Hingston

James Kean Paterson
Esther Charlotte Hingston
💍 1918/3144

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor
Domestic Duties

36
23

Feilding
Feilding

8 days
23 years

Presbyterian Church, Feilding

2761

2 April 1918

Rev. T. Miller, Presbyterian

No	11
Date of Notice	2 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Kean Paterson	Esther Charlotte Hingston
	💍 1918/3144
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor	Domestic Duties
Age	36	23
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	8 days	23 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Feilding
Folio	2761
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Miller, Presbyterian

4 April 1918

William Thomas Fletcher Craine
Phoebe Emma Baker

William Thomas Fletcher Craine
Phoebe Emma Baker
💍 1918/3145

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

32
28

Feilding
Feilding

2 days
28 years

Residence of Mrs Esther Baker, Denbigh Street, Feilding

2762

4 April 1918

Rev. P. J. Jones, Methodist

No	12
Date of Notice	4 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomas Fletcher Craine	Phoebe Emma Baker
	💍 1918/3145
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	2 days	28 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Esther Baker, Denbigh Street, Feilding
Folio	2762
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Jones, Methodist

23 April 1918

Thomas Harold Aiken
Fanny Turner

Thomas Harold Aiken
Fannie Turner
💍 1918/3146

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Waitress

25
21

Kiwitea
Feilding

9 months
3 months

Anglican Church, Feilding

2763

23 April 1918

Rev. A. S. Innes-Jones, Anglican

No	13
Date of Notice	23 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Harold Aiken	Fanny Turner
BDM Match (92%)	Thomas Harold Aiken	Fannie Turner
	💍 1918/3146
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Waitress
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Kiwitea	Feilding
Length of Residence	9 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Feilding
Folio	2763
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. S. Innes-Jones, Anglican

30 May 1918

Francis Henry Stockwell
Charlotte Jane Burne

Francis Henry Stockwell
Charlotte Jane Burne
💍 1918/3147

Bachelor
Spinster

Surgeon Dentist
Domestic Duties

41
21

Feilding
Feilding

4 years
21 years

Anglican Church, Feilding

2764

30 May 1918

Rev. A. S. Innes-Jones, Anglican

No	14
Date of Notice	30 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Henry Stockwell	Charlotte Jane Burne
	💍 1918/3147
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surgeon Dentist	Domestic Duties
Age	41	21
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	4 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Feilding
Folio	2764
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. S. Innes-Jones, Anglican

31 May 1918

Henry Edward Rickard
Rhoda Isabella Marcom

Henry Edward Rickard
Rhoda Isabella Marson
💍 1918/3148

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

36
30

Feilding
Feilding

4 days
4 days

Gospel Hall, Feilding

2765

31 May 1918

Mr Thomas Rowe, Christian Brethren

No	15
Date of Notice	31 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Edward Rickard	Rhoda Isabella Marcom
BDM Match (95%)	Henry Edward Rickard	Rhoda Isabella Marson
	💍 1918/3148
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	36	30
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Feilding
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Gospel Hall, Feilding
Folio	2765
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Mr Thomas Rowe, Christian Brethren

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).