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 1427

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar Chas. E. Hylton

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 July 1918

Colin Hamilton McGrail
Eunice Hintz

Colin Hamilton McGrail
Eunice Hintz
💍 1918/4949

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Fireman
Dressmaker

24
23

Okoia
Wanganui

24 years
14 days

Registrar's Office, Wanganui

4522

27 July 1918

Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

No	93
Date of Notice	27 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Colin Hamilton McGrail	Eunice Hintz
	💍 1918/4949
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Fireman	Dressmaker
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Okoia	Wanganui
Length of Residence	24 years	14 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wanganui
Folio	4522
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

29 July 1918

Alfred Charles Martis
Rachel Barnard

Alfed Charles Martis
Rachel Barnard
💍 1918/4950

Divorced 30/1/17
Divorced 15/10/15

Tailor
Housewife

31
31

Wanganui
Wanganui

3 months
3 months

Registrar's Office, Wanganui

4523

29 July 1918

Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

No	94
Date of Notice	29 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Charles Martis	Rachel Barnard
BDM Match (98%)	Alfed Charles Martis	Rachel Barnard
	💍 1918/4950
Condition	Divorced 30/1/17	Divorced 15/10/15
Profession	Tailor	Housewife
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wanganui
Folio	4523
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

31 July 1918

Alfred Roy
Ivy Lenore Hatcher

Alfred Roy
Ivy Lenore Hatcher
💍 1918/4951

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor driver
Domestic Help

19
19

Wanganui
Wanganui

2 years
19 years

Registrar's Office, Wanganui

4524

Alfred Franklyn Roy Father; Maud Eliza Hatcher Mother

31 July 1918

Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

No	95
Date of Notice	31 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Roy	Ivy Lenore Hatcher
	💍 1918/4951
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor driver	Domestic Help
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	2 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wanganui
Folio	4524
Consent	Alfred Franklyn Roy Father; Maud Eliza Hatcher Mother
Date of Certificate	31 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

31 July 1918

Frank Harvey Uttley
Ellen Margaret Leyland

Frank Harvey Uttley
Ellen Margaret Leyland
💍 1918/4952

Bachelor
Spinster

Assistant Meat Inspector
Costumier

30
30

Gonville
Gonville

4 months
3 days

Trinity Methodist Church, Wanganui

4525

31 July 1918

H. L. Blamires, Methodist

No	96
Date of Notice	31 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Harvey Uttley	Ellen Margaret Leyland
	💍 1918/4952
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Assistant Meat Inspector	Costumier
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Gonville	Gonville
Length of Residence	4 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Wanganui
Folio	4525
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1918
Officiating Minister	H. L. Blamires, Methodist

2 August 1918

Lance Norman Buckley
Ruby Caroline Wilson

Lance Norman Buckley
Ruby Caroline Wilson
💍 1918/5127

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic duties

21
19

Wanganui
Gonville

2 years
10 years

Registrar's Office, Wanganui

4526

John Wilson Father

2 August 1918

Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

No	97
Date of Notice	2 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lance Norman Buckley	Ruby Caroline Wilson
	💍 1918/5127
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic duties
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Gonville
Length of Residence	2 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wanganui
Folio	4526
Consent	John Wilson Father
Date of Certificate	2 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Chas. E. Hylton, 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).