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 1549

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar W. W. Samson

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

492

24 June 1918

Heimann Isaac Ballin
Miriam Sarah Cohen

Heinmarn Isaac Ballin
Miriam Sarah Cohen
💍 1918/2465

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

38
28

Featherston
Wellington

5 days
25 years

House of H. Levy 232 Vivian Street Wellington

2029

24 June 1918

Rev. H. Van Staveren

No	492
Date of Notice	24 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Heimann Isaac Ballin	Miriam Sarah Cohen
BDM Match (95%)	Heinmarn Isaac Ballin	Miriam Sarah Cohen
	💍 1918/2465
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	25 years
Marriage Place	House of H. Levy 232 Vivian Street Wellington
Folio	2029
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Van Staveren

493

24 June 1918

Hugh Robert Wallace
Eudora Grace Ellen Hardie

Hugh Robert Wallace
Eudora Grace Ellen Hardie
💍 1918/2466

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet maker

26
29

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
20 years

St James' Church Wellington

2030

24 June 1918

Rev. W. Shirer

No	493
Date of Notice	24 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Robert Wallace	Eudora Grace Ellen Hardie
	💍 1918/2466
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet maker
Age	26	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	St James' Church Wellington
Folio	2030
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

494

24 June 1918

Robert Daniel Benge
Annie Agnes Osborne

Robert Daniel Benge
Annie Agnes Osborne
💍 1918/2467

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

21
20

Tauherenikau
Wellington

3 weeks
1 month

House of H. W. Benge Upper Hutt

2031

Augusta Johanna Forsyth Mother Wellington

24 June 1918

Rev. A. M. Clinie

No	494
Date of Notice	24 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Daniel Benge	Annie Agnes Osborne
	💍 1918/2467
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Tauherenikau	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 weeks	1 month
Marriage Place	House of H. W. Benge Upper Hutt
Folio	2031
Consent	Augusta Johanna Forsyth Mother Wellington
Date of Certificate	24 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Clinie

495

25 June 1918

John Moore
Mabel Brenda Dowling

John Harold Moore
Mabel Brenda Dowling
💍 1918/2468

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

25
21

Trentham
Wellington

2 months
21 years

Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington

2032

25 June 1918

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	495
Date of Notice	25 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Moore	Mabel Brenda Dowling
BDM Match (79%)	John Harold Moore	Mabel Brenda Dowling
	💍 1918/2468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	21 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	2032
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

496

25 June 1918

William Walter Brown
Ethel Alma Gladys Skinner

William Walter Brown
Ethel Alma Gladys Spinner
💍 1918/2469

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

32
26

Trentham
Wellington

2 months
24 years

Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington

2033

25 June 1918

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	496
Date of Notice	25 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Walter Brown	Ethel Alma Gladys Skinner
BDM Match (98%)	William Walter Brown	Ethel Alma Gladys Spinner
	💍 1918/2469
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	24 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	2033
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

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).