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 1397

District of Taihape Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar P. T. Missen

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

4 January 1918

Bernard McDonald
Lily Roden

Bernard McDonald
Lily Roden
💍 1918/566

Bachelor
Divorced decree absolute 14th March 1917

Labourer
General housework

27
28

Taihape
Taihape

7 months
7 months

Registrars Office Taihape

1228

4 January 1918

P. T. Missen, Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	4 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bernard McDonald	Lily Roden
	💍 1918/566
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced decree absolute 14th March 1917
Profession	Labourer	General housework
Age	27	28
Dwelling Place	Taihape	Taihape
Length of Residence	7 months	7 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Taihape
Folio	1228
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1918
Officiating Minister	P. T. Missen, Registrar

31 January 1918

Arthur Herbert Matthews
Elsie Christensen

Arthur Herbert Matthews
Elsie Christensen
💍 1918/567

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

25
18

Utiku
Utiku

21 years
18 years

Registrars Office Taihape

1229

Cathrina Dorothea Christensen, Mother

31 January 1918

P. T. Missen, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	31 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Herbert Matthews	Elsie Christensen
	💍 1918/567
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Utiku	Utiku
Length of Residence	21 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Taihape
Folio	1229
Consent	Cathrina Dorothea Christensen, Mother
Date of Certificate	31 January 1918
Officiating Minister	P. T. Missen, Registrar

5 February 1918

Harold Beehin
Ivy Jane Mason

Harold Bullin
Ivy Jane Bason
💍 1918/568

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Home duties

27
24

New Plymouth
Taihape

3 years
11 years

St Margarets Church of England Taihape

1230

5 February 1918

W. F. Stent, Church of England

No	3
Date of Notice	5 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Beehin	Ivy Jane Mason
BDM Match (85%)	Harold Bullin	Ivy Jane Bason
	💍 1918/568
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Home duties
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	New Plymouth	Taihape
Length of Residence	3 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St Margarets Church of England Taihape
Folio	1230
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 February 1918
Officiating Minister	W. F. Stent, Church of England

12 February 1918

Thomas Henry Nagel
Elizabeth McDermott

Thomas Henry Nagel
Elizabeth McDermott
💍 1918/569

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter and Paperhanger
Shop Assistant

24
19

Taihape
Taihape

3 years
11 years

St Margarets Church of England Taihape

1231

Annie McDermott, Mother

12 February 1918

W. F. Stent, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	12 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Nagel	Elizabeth McDermott
	💍 1918/569
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter and Paperhanger	Shop Assistant
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Taihape	Taihape
Length of Residence	3 years	11 years
Marriage Place	St Margarets Church of England Taihape
Folio	1231
Consent	Annie McDermott, Mother
Date of Certificate	12 February 1918
Officiating Minister	W. F. Stent, Church of England

22 February 1918

Charles Gallagher
Annie Lyndora Crichton

Charles Gallagher
Annie Lyndora Crichton
💍 1918/570

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Spinster

21
19

Utiku
Utiku

21 years
10 years

Church of England Utiku

1232

John Stewart Crichton, Father

22 February 1918

W. F. Stent, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	22 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Gallagher	Annie Lyndora Crichton
	💍 1918/570
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Spinster
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Utiku	Utiku
Length of Residence	21 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Utiku
Folio	1232
Consent	John Stewart Crichton, Father
Date of Certificate	22 February 1918
Officiating Minister	W. F. Stent, 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).