Intentions to Marry, 1918 Levin to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840478, 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.

1918d contains pages 1249-1646, covering districts from Levin to Wellington

Page 1335

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar C. E. Shortt

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

20 July 1918

Charles Algernon Leicester
Mabel Ellen Smith

Charles Algermon Leicester
Mabel Ellen Smith
💍 1918/4889

Widower
Divorced

Farmer
Domestic

46
43

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

2 weeks
2 weeks

Registrar's Office Palmerston North

4460

20 July 1918

C. E. Shortt Registrar

No	72
Date of Notice	20 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Algernon Leicester	Mabel Ellen Smith
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Algermon Leicester	Mabel Ellen Smith
	💍 1918/4889
Condition	Widower	Divorced
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	46	43
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Palmerston North
Folio	4460
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1918
Officiating Minister	C. E. Shortt Registrar

22 July 1918

Robert Seadown Nicholson
Alice Susannah Cradduck

Robert Seadown Nicholson
Alice Susannah Cradduck
💍 1918/4890

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

48
33

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 days
3 days

All Saints Church of England Palmerston North

4461

22 July 1918

Rev H. G. Blackburne Anglican

No	73
Date of Notice	22 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Seadown Nicholson	Alice Susannah Cradduck
	💍 1918/4890
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	48	33
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England Palmerston North
Folio	4461
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev H. G. Blackburne Anglican

23 July 1918

Harold Henry Ferguson
Margaret McDonald

Harold Henry Ferguson
Margaret McDonald
💍 1918/4891

Bachelor
Spinster

Stockman
Domestic

33
20

Palmerston North
Longburn

3 days
7 years

Cuba Street Methodist Church Palmerston North

4462

Henry McDonald Father

23 July 1918

Rev A. Ashcroft Methodist

No	74
Date of Notice	23 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Henry Ferguson	Margaret McDonald
	💍 1918/4891
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stockman	Domestic
Age	33	20
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Longburn
Length of Residence	3 days	7 years
Marriage Place	Cuba Street Methodist Church Palmerston North
Folio	4462
Consent	Henry McDonald Father
Date of Certificate	23 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev A. Ashcroft Methodist

25 July 1918

Edmund Alfred Holland
Violette May Adams

Edmund Alfred Holland
Violette May Adams
💍 1918/4892

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

23
22

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

4 months
6 weeks

All Saints Church of England Palmerston North

4463

25 July 1918

Rev H. G. Blackburne Anglican

No	75
Date of Notice	25 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmund Alfred Holland	Violette May Adams
	💍 1918/4892
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	4 months	6 weeks
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England Palmerston North
Folio	4463
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev H. G. Blackburne Anglican

26 July 1918

Robert Morrow Scott
Elizabeth Josephine Coulter

Robert Morrow Scott
Elizabeth Josephine Coulter
💍 1918/4893

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmiller
Domestic

35
22

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office Palmerston North

4464

26 July 1918

C. E. Shortt Registrar

No	76
Date of Notice	26 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Morrow Scott	Elizabeth Josephine Coulter
	💍 1918/4893
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmiller	Domestic
Age	35	22
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Palmerston North
Folio	4464
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1918
Officiating Minister	C. E. Shortt 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).