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 1036

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

27 April 1918

Alexander McErlich
Annie Forbes

Alexander McErlich
Annie Forbes
💍 1918/3069

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Housemaid

35
24

Arapawanui
Arapawanui

6 years
2 years

Registrar's Office Napier

2686

27 April 1918

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	29
Date of Notice	27 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander McErlich	Annie Forbes
	💍 1918/3069
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Housemaid
Age	35	24
Dwelling Place	Arapawanui	Arapawanui
Length of Residence	6 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	2686
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

29 April 1918

George O'Brien
Lydia Henderson

George O'Brien
Lydia Henderson
💍 1918/3070

George Courtier
Jacobina Henderson
💍 1919/2013

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman
Clerk

about 28
22

Napier
Napier

3 months
6 days

Registrar's Office Napier

2687

29 April 1918

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	30
Date of Notice	29 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George O'Brien	Lydia Henderson
	💍 1918/3070
BDM Match (67%)	George Courtier	Jacobina Henderson
	💍 1919/2013
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman	Clerk
Age	about 28	22
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	3 months	6 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	2687
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 April 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

2 May 1918

George Arthur Fearn
Evelyn Long

George Arthur Fearn
Evelyn Tong
💍 1918/3071

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Manager
Domestic Duties

27
19

Omaranui
Omaranui

27 years
19 years

Residence of Frank Charles Long Puketapu

2688

Frank Charles Long, Father

2 May 1918

Rev. Archdeacon Cullwick, Church of England

No	31
Date of Notice	2 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Arthur Fearn	Evelyn Long
BDM Match (95%)	George Arthur Fearn	Evelyn Tong
	💍 1918/3071
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Omaranui	Omaranui
Length of Residence	27 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Frank Charles Long Puketapu
Folio	2688
Consent	Frank Charles Long, Father
Date of Certificate	2 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Archdeacon Cullwick, Church of England

4 May 1918

Alexander Wray
Winifred Annie Harrison

Alexander Wray
Winifred Annie Harrison
💍 1918/3072

Alexander Finlay
Margaret Harrison
💍 1918/2231

Widower 26 Sept 1906
Spinster

Shepherd
Nurse

50
45

Napier
Napier

10 days
6 months

Registrar's Office Napier

2689

4 May 1918

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	32
Date of Notice	4 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Wray	Winifred Annie Harrison
	💍 1918/3072
BDM Match (61%)	Alexander Finlay	Margaret Harrison
	💍 1918/2231
Condition	Widower 26 Sept 1906	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Nurse
Age	50	45
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	10 days	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	2689
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 May 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

8 May 1918

Louis Martin Wilhelm Smith
Elizabeth Foster

Louis Martin Wilhelm Smith
Elizabeth Foster
💍 1918/3073

Bachelor
Spinster

Ship wright
Domestic Duties

31
26

Westshore
Westshore

7 years
20 years

St. Augustine's Church Napier

2690

8 May 1918

Rev. H. J. Simkin, Church of England

No	33
Date of Notice	8 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Martin Wilhelm Smith	Elizabeth Foster
	💍 1918/3073
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ship wright	Domestic Duties
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Westshore	Westshore
Length of Residence	7 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church Napier
Folio	2690
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. J. Simkin, Church of England

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).