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 1020

District of Hastings Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar P. B. 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

22 August 1918

Walter George Fulford
Dorothy Smart

Walter George Tulford
Dorothy Smart
💍 1918/4723

Bachelor
Spinster

Orchardist
Domestic duties

39
21

Havelock North
Havelock North

30 years
21 years

St Luke's Church, Havelock North

4319

22 August 1918

Rev. A. F. Hall

No	66
Date of Notice	22 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter George Fulford	Dorothy Smart
BDM Match (98%)	Walter George Tulford	Dorothy Smart
	💍 1918/4723
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Orchardist	Domestic duties
Age	39	21
Dwelling Place	Havelock North	Havelock North
Length of Residence	30 years	21 years
Marriage Place	St Luke's Church, Havelock North
Folio	4319
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. F. Hall

26 August 1918

John Matheson Cameron
Lena McNaughton

John Matheson Cameron
Lena McNaughton
💍 1918/4725

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

41
22

Hastings
Hastings

20 years
22 years

Presbyterian Church, Hastings

4320

26 August 1918

Rev. P. Ramsay

No	67
Date of Notice	26 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Matheson Cameron	Lena McNaughton
	💍 1918/4725
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	41	22
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	20 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Hastings
Folio	4320
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Ramsay

27 August 1918

William Daniel O'Leary
Edith Stanley

William Daniel O'Leary
Edith Stanley
💍 1918/4726

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Driver
Domestic duties

18
19

Hastings
Hastings

3 days
19 years

Dwelling of Mr. H. Stanley, Lyndon Rd, Hastings

4321

Arthur John O'Leary (Father), Harry Stanley (Father)

27 August 1918

Rev. P. Ramsay

No	68
Date of Notice	27 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Daniel O'Leary	Edith Stanley
	💍 1918/4726
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Driver	Domestic duties
Age	18	19
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	3 days	19 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Mr. H. Stanley, Lyndon Rd, Hastings
Folio	4321
Consent	Arthur John O'Leary (Father), Harry Stanley (Father)
Date of Certificate	27 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Ramsay

02 September 1918

Michael John Chaafe
Annie Harrison

Michael John Chaafe
Annie Harrison
💍 1918/4727

Bachelor
Spinster

Coppersmith
Domestic

34
25

Hastings
Hastings

3 days
25 years

Dwelling of Mrs. A. Harrison, Queen St, Hastings

4322

02 September 1918

Rev. Father Mahony

No	69
Date of Notice	02 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael John Chaafe	Annie Harrison
	💍 1918/4727
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coppersmith	Domestic
Age	34	25
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Mrs. A. Harrison, Queen St, Hastings
Folio	4322
Consent
Date of Certificate	02 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Mahony

23 September 1918

William Sidney Valentine Nicholls
Constance Millicent Eva Jones

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

32
19

Hastings
Hastings

6 years
1 year

Residence of Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt, Hastings

No one in New Zealand having authority by Law to give consent

23 September 1918

Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt

No	70
Date of Notice	23 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Sidney Valentine Nicholls	Constance Millicent Eva Jones
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	32	19
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	6 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt, Hastings
Folio
Consent	No one in New Zealand having authority by Law to give consent
Date of Certificate	23 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt

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).