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 1030

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

12 January 1918

Alfred Oliver Christoffersen
Eva Beaumont Lovell

Alfred Oliver Christoffersen
Eva Beaumont Lovell
💍 1918/1306

Bachelor
Widow January 1916

Waterside Worker
Domestic

28
22

Port Ahuriri
Napier

3 years
22 years

Registrar's Office Napier

1077

12 January 1918

W. Buchanan Registrar

No	6
Date of Notice	12 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Oliver Christoffersen	Eva Beaumont Lovell
	💍 1918/1306
Condition	Bachelor	Widow January 1916
Profession	Waterside Worker	Domestic
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Port Ahuriri	Napier
Length of Residence	3 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	1077
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan Registrar

15 January 1918

William Joseph Phillips
Emily Catherine Higgins

William Joseph Phillips
Emily Catherine Higgins
💍 1918/1312

Bachelor
Divorced 4th December 1915

Soldier late Sawmiller
Dressmaker

35
38

Napier
Napier

12 months
15 years

Methodist Parsonage Napier

1078

15 January 1918

Rev. J. K. Richards Methodist

No	7
Date of Notice	15 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Joseph Phillips	Emily Catherine Higgins
	💍 1918/1312
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced 4th December 1915
Profession	Soldier late Sawmiller	Dressmaker
Age	35	38
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	12 months	15 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage Napier
Folio	1078
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Richards Methodist

16 January 1918

William Boyle
Taihe Kuna (Maori of full blood)

William Boyle
Taihe Puna
💍 1918/1313

William Boyle
Isabella Mary Eames
💍 1918/652

Bachelor
Widow 20th October 1914

Soldier late Fencer
Domestic Duties

28
31

Petane
Petane

12 months
10 years

Registrar's Office Napier

1079

16 January 1918

W. Buchanan Registrar

No	8
Date of Notice	16 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Boyle	Taihe Kuna (Maori of full blood)
BDM Match (64%)	William Boyle	Taihe Puna
	💍 1918/1313
BDM Match (61%)	William Boyle	Isabella Mary Eames
	💍 1918/652
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 20th October 1914
Profession	Soldier late Fencer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	31
Dwelling Place	Petane	Petane
Length of Residence	12 months	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	1079
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan Registrar

30 January 1918

John Harry Woods
Jane Ann Thom

John Henry Woods
Jane Ann Thom
💍 1918/1314

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier
Domestic Duties

27
27

Port Ahuriri
Port Ahuriri

9 years
5 years

Residence of W. H. Atkins Greenmeadows

1080

30 January 1918

Rev. R. F. Fish Presbyterian

No	9
Date of Notice	30 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Harry Woods	Jane Ann Thom
BDM Match (94%)	John Henry Woods	Jane Ann Thom
	💍 1918/1314
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier	Domestic Duties
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Port Ahuriri	Port Ahuriri
Length of Residence	9 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of W. H. Atkins Greenmeadows
Folio	1080
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. F. Fish Presbyterian

12 February 1918

Henry Mul-Holland
Maggie Massey

Henry Mul-Holland
Maggie Massey
💍 1918/1315

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Hand
Domestic

44
23

Whakatu
Napier

2 years
1 week

Registrar's Office Napier

1081

12 February 1918

W. Buchanan Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	12 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Mul-Holland	Maggie Massey
	💍 1918/1315
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Hand	Domestic
Age	44	23
Dwelling Place	Whakatu	Napier
Length of Residence	2 years	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Napier
Folio	1081
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1918
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan Registrar

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).