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 1495

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

221

26 March 1918

George Simmons Renner
Isabella Margaret Ahlers

George Simmons Renner
Isabella Margaret Ahlers
💍 1918/246

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

26
20

Wellington
Wellington

Life
10 years

St. James' Church Manse, Wellington South

306

Marie Pauline Ahlers mother

26 March 1918

Rev. W. Shirer

No	221
Date of Notice	26 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Simmons Renner	Isabella Margaret Ahlers
	💍 1918/246
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	10 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church Manse, Wellington South
Folio	306
Consent	Marie Pauline Ahlers mother
Date of Certificate	26 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

222

26 March 1918

Francis O'Connor
Isabel Priscilla Pellew

Francis O'Connor
Isabel Priscilla Pellew
💍 1918/247

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

21
23

Wellington
Wellington

Life
2 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle St., Wellington

307

26 March 1918

Rev. D. H. Hurley

No	222
Date of Notice	26 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis O'Connor	Isabel Priscilla Pellew
	💍 1918/247
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle St., Wellington
Folio	307
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. H. Hurley

223

26 March 1918

Albert Basil Cameron
Rose Monk

Albert Basil Cameron
Rose Monk
💍 1918/248

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

24
22

Featherston
Auckland

2 months
1 year

St Marks Church, Remuera, Auckland

308

26 March 1918

Rev. W. Beatty

No	223
Date of Notice	26 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Basil Cameron	Rose Monk
	💍 1918/248
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 months	1 year
Marriage Place	St Marks Church, Remuera, Auckland
Folio	308
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Beatty

224

26 March 1918

Charles Mitchell Kirkland
Mabel Walton Davies

Charles Mitchell Kirkland
Mabel Walton Davies
💍 1918/249

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

24
20

Wellington
Khandallah, Wellington

Life
Life

The Residence of Mrs Kirkland, 79 Austin Street, Wellington

309

Harry Wilson Davies father

26 March 1918

Rev. W. Shirer

No	224
Date of Notice	26 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Mitchell Kirkland	Mabel Walton Davies
	💍 1918/249
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Khandallah, Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	The Residence of Mrs Kirkland, 79 Austin Street, Wellington
Folio	309
Consent	Harry Wilson Davies father
Date of Certificate	26 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

225

26 March 1918

Kenneth Alister Brennan
Mildred Zeta Paul

Kenneth Alister Brennan
Mildred Zita Paul
💍 1918/226

Bachelor
Widow

Motor mechanic

25
31

Lyall Bay
Lyall Bay

2 months
2 months

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

310

26 March 1918

Rev. H. Watson

No	225
Date of Notice	26 March 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Alister Brennan	Mildred Zeta Paul
BDM Match (97%)	Kenneth Alister Brennan	Mildred Zita Paul
	💍 1918/226
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Motor mechanic
Age	25	31
Dwelling Place	Lyall Bay	Lyall Bay
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis St., Wellington
Folio	310
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 March 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

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).