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 1461

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1918 Registrar R. G. Poulton

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

26 January 1918

Alfred Henry Brown
Margaret Sarah Hughes

Alfred Henry Brown
Margaret Sarah Hughes
💍 1918/85

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 12/2/1917

Motor Car Driver

20
23

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
Life

Registrar's Office Wellington

142

Henry Brown, Father

26 January 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	51
Date of Notice	26 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Henry Brown	Margaret Sarah Hughes
	💍 1918/85
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 12/2/1917
Profession	Motor Car Driver
Age	20	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	142
Consent	Henry Brown, Father
Date of Certificate	26 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

28 January 1918

John Hamilton Miles
Daphne Mary Dryden

John Hamilton Miles
Daphne Mary Dryden
💍 1918/86

Widower 22/3/1916
Spinster

Solicitor

38
19

Marton
Karori

15 years
19 years

St Peter's Church Willis St. Wellington.

143

Henry Ernest Dryden, Father

28 January 1918

Rev. H. Watson

No	52
Date of Notice	28 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hamilton Miles	Daphne Mary Dryden
	💍 1918/86
Condition	Widower 22/3/1916	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	38	19
Dwelling Place	Marton	Karori
Length of Residence	15 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church Willis St. Wellington.
Folio	143
Consent	Henry Ernest Dryden, Father
Date of Certificate	28 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

29 January 1918

John Lawrence Smaill
Jessie Archbald Ballantyne

John Laurence Smaill
Jessie Archbald Ballantyne
💍 1918/87

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

32
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
4 days

Baptist Church Vivian St Wellington.

144

29 January 1918

Rev. J. Carlisle

No	53
Date of Notice	29 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Lawrence Smaill	Jessie Archbald Ballantyne
BDM Match (98%)	John Laurence Smaill	Jessie Archbald Ballantyne
	💍 1918/87
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Vivian St Wellington.
Folio	144
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Carlisle

29 January 1918

George Edward Bingham
Elizabeth Rose Gilliam

George Edward Bingham
Elizabeth Rose Gilliam
💍 1918/89

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

41
33

Wellington
Wanganui

5 days
2 years

Registrar's Office Wellington.

145

29 January 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	54
Date of Notice	29 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Edward Bingham	Elizabeth Rose Gilliam
	💍 1918/89
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	41	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wanganui
Length of Residence	5 days	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington.
Folio	145
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

29 January 1918

Frank Oliver Bailey
Ruth May Moxham

Frank Oliver Bailey
Ruth May Moxham
💍 1918/90

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

42
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 months

St Mark's Church Wellington

146

29 January 1918

Rev. W. A. Keay.

No	55
Date of Notice	29 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Oliver Bailey	Ruth May Moxham
	💍 1918/90
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	42	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 months
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	146
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. A. Keay.

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).