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 1567

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

578

30 July 1918

Ernest Hedley McNabb
Delia Wilkinson

Ernest Hedley McNabb
Delia Dickinson
💍 1918/4215

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 26/5/1904

Machinist

33
37

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

3607

30 July 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	578
Date of Notice	30 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Hedley McNabb	Delia Wilkinson
BDM Match (93%)	Ernest Hedley McNabb	Delia Dickinson
	💍 1918/4215
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 26/5/1904
Profession	Machinist
Age	33	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	3607
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

579

30 July 1918

Alexander Trotter
Coralena May Cliff

Alexander Trotter
Coralena May Cliff
💍 1918/4216

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd

32
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

3608

30 July 1918

Rev. F. M. Kempthorne

No	579
Date of Notice	30 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Trotter	Coralena May Cliff
	💍 1918/4216
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	3608
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. M. Kempthorne

580

31 July 1918

William Henry Edwards
Bertha Williams

William Henry Edwards
Bertha Williams
💍 1918/4217

William Henry Edwards
Blanche Eliza Williams
💍 1918/877

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer
Dressmaker

36
32

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
9 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

3609

31 July 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	580
Date of Notice	31 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Edwards	Bertha Williams
	💍 1918/4217
BDM Match (77%)	William Henry Edwards	Blanche Eliza Williams
	💍 1918/877
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer	Dressmaker
Age	36	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	3609
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

581

31 July 1918

Reginald McIlvride
Ethel Martha Unsworth

Reginald McIlvride
Ethel Martha Unsworth
💍 1918/4194

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

23
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
Life

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

3610

31 July 1918

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	581
Date of Notice	31 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald McIlvride	Ethel Martha Unsworth
	💍 1918/4194
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	Life
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	3610
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

582

31 July 1918

Paul Gerhard Michalsen
Constance May Wood

Paul Gerhard Michalesen
Constance May Wood
💍 1918/4195

Bachelor
Widow 23/4/13

Labourer

36
34

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
3 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

3611

31 July 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	582
Date of Notice	31 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Paul Gerhard Michalsen	Constance May Wood
BDM Match (98%)	Paul Gerhard Michalesen	Constance May Wood
	💍 1918/4195
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 23/4/13
Profession	Labourer
Age	36	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	3611
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 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).