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 1543

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar W. B. G. Stone

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

462

14 June 1918

Ernest Edwin Wightman
Henrietta Burnett

Ernest Edwin Wightman
Henrietta Burnett
💍 1918/2440

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanical Engineer

46
31

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
2 years

Presbyterian Manse, Dixon Street, Wellington

2004

14 June 1918

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	462
Date of Notice	14 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Edwin Wightman	Henrietta Burnett
	💍 1918/2440
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanical Engineer
Age	46	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Dixon Street, Wellington
Folio	2004
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

463

14 June 1918

Walter Norman Clout
Alice Elizabeth Clout

Walter Norman Clout
Alice Elizabeth Clout
💍 1918/2441

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

23 years
22 years

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

2005

14 June 1918

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	463
Date of Notice	14 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Norman Clout	Alice Elizabeth Clout
	💍 1918/2441
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	2005
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

464

14 June 1918

Cyril Hitchcock
Catherine Crosby

Cyril Hitchcock
Catherine Grooby
💍 1918/2442

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
20

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
3 days

St. Peters Church, Wellington

2006

John Crosby, Father

14 June 1918

Rev. H. Watson

No	464
Date of Notice	14 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Hitchcock	Catherine Crosby
BDM Match (94%)	Cyril Hitchcock	Catherine Grooby
	💍 1918/2442
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Wellington
Folio	2006
Consent	John Crosby, Father
Date of Certificate	14 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

465

15 June 1918

Alexander Dunnett
Margaret Jean Patterson

Alexander Dunnett
Margaret Jean Paterson
💍 1918/2443

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Mechanic

32
25

Trentham
Wellington

3 months
1 month

Presbyterian Manse, 124 Dixon Street, Wellington

2007

15 June 1918

Rev. S. R. Orr

No	465
Date of Notice	15 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Dunnett	Margaret Jean Patterson
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Dunnett	Margaret Jean Paterson
	💍 1918/2443
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Mechanic
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	1 month
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, 124 Dixon Street, Wellington
Folio	2007
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr

466

15 June 1918

Charles Ward
Dorothy Zealand Ingram

Charles Ward
Dorothy Lealand Ingram
💍 1918/2444

Bachelor
Spinster

Radio Telegraphist

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
2 years

St. Peters Church, Wellington

2008

15 June 1918

Rev. H. Watson

No	466
Date of Notice	15 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Ward	Dorothy Zealand Ingram
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Ward	Dorothy Lealand Ingram
	💍 1918/2444
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Radio Telegraphist
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Wellington
Folio	2008
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 June 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).