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 1491

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

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

201

21 March 1918

Henry Rex-Trott
Harriet Constance Isobel Young

Henry Rix-Trott
Harriet Constance Isobel Young
💍 1918/900

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

25
28

Hastings
Wellington

1 year
4 years

St. Peter's Church, Willis St., Wellington

287

21 March 1918

Rev. H. Watson

No	201
Date of Notice	21 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Rex-Trott	Harriet Constance Isobel Young
BDM Match (97%)	Henry Rix-Trott	Harriet Constance Isobel Young
	💍 1918/900
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	4 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis St., Wellington
Folio	287
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

202

21 March 1918

Harold John Barr Tomlinson
Flora Florence Cochrane

Harold John Barr Tomlinson
Flora Florence Cochrane
💍 1918/901

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
21

Hataitai, Wellington
Wellington

3 months
6 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

288

21 March 1918

Rev. J. H. Elliott D.D.

No	202
Date of Notice	21 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold John Barr Tomlinson	Flora Florence Cochrane
	💍 1918/901
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Hataitai, Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	6 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	288
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Elliott D.D.

203

21 March 1918

Grenfell Currie Griffith
Doris Louise Millar

Grenfell Currie Griffith
Doris Louise Millar
💍 1918/902

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

32
25

Wellington
Wellington

2 days
6 years

St. James' Church, Wellington South

289

21 March 1918

Rev. W. Shirer

No	203
Date of Notice	21 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Grenfell Currie Griffith	Doris Louise Millar
	💍 1918/902
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 days	6 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Wellington South
Folio	289
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

204

21 March 1918

Johan Peterson Lang
Helen Bingham White

Johan Peterson Lang
Helen Bingham White
💍 1918/903

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet-maker

45
40

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
17 years

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

290

21 March 1918

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	204
Date of Notice	21 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Johan Peterson Lang	Helen Bingham White
	💍 1918/903
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet-maker
Age	45	40
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	290
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

205

22 March 1918

Leonard Beaumont Rowe
Louise Frederikke Petersen

Leonard Beaumont Rowe
Louise Frederikke Petersen
💍 1918/904

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

33
32

Trentham
Wellington

4 months
2 months

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

291

22 March 1918

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	205
Date of Notice	22 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Beaumont Rowe	Louise Frederikke Petersen
	💍 1918/904
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	33	32
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	2 months
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	291
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

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).