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 1475

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

121

20 February 1918

Robert Edward Clark
Ethel May Carey

Robert Edward Clark
Ethel May Carey
💍 1918/870

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

27
30

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
9 months

Methodist Church Taranaki St. Wellington

209

20 February 1918

Rev J. G. Chapman

No	121
Date of Notice	20 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Edward Clark	Ethel May Carey
	💍 1918/870
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	27	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	9 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Taranaki St. Wellington
Folio	209
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev J. G. Chapman

122

20 February 1918

Sidney Alfred Coles
Winifred Fisher Crawley

Sidney Alfred Coles
Winifred Fisher Crawley
💍 1918/847

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

22
19

Seatoun
Wellington

3 years
3 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

210

Marion Crawley Mother

20 February 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	122
Date of Notice	20 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Alfred Coles	Winifred Fisher Crawley
	💍 1918/847
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Seatoun	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	210
Consent	Marion Crawley Mother
Date of Certificate	20 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

123

20 February 1918

Sydney George Tasman Cook
Phyllis Gillon

Sydney George Tasman Cook
Phyllis Gillon
💍 1918/848

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer's Assistant

19
19

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
15 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

211

Emma Cook mother, Robert Gillon father

20 February 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	123
Date of Notice	20 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney George Tasman Cook	Phyllis Gillon
	💍 1918/848
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer's Assistant
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	211
Consent	Emma Cook mother, Robert Gillon father
Date of Certificate	20 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

124

21 February 1918

Henry Mehan Easton
Doris Elizabeth Gill

Henry Mehan Easton
Doris Elizabeth Gill
💍 1918/849

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

27
18

Trentham
Nelson

12 months
Life

Registrar's Office Wellington

212

Elizabeth Gill Mother

21 February 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	124
Date of Notice	21 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Mehan Easton	Doris Elizabeth Gill
	💍 1918/849
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	27	18
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Nelson
Length of Residence	12 months	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	212
Consent	Elizabeth Gill Mother
Date of Certificate	21 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

125

22 February 1918

Robert Cameron
Margaret Jakeman

Robert Cameron
Margaret Jakeman
💍 1918/850

Bachelor
Married not heard of husband as alive for 7 years last past

Soldier

41
40

Trentham
Wellington

about 6 months
2 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

213

22 February 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	125
Date of Notice	22 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Cameron	Margaret Jakeman
	💍 1918/850
Condition	Bachelor	Married not heard of husband as alive for 7 years last past
Profession	Soldier
Age	41	40
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	about 6 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	213
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy 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).