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 1595

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

718

27 September 1918

Charles Edwin Sims
Jean Wallace

Charles Edwin Sims
Jean Wallace
💍 1918/4426

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

40
39

Trentham
Wellington

13 months
6 years

St. John's Church Willis St. Wellington

3742

27 September 1918

Rev. J. Gibb

No	718
Date of Notice	27 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edwin Sims	Jean Wallace
	💍 1918/4426
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	40	39
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 months	6 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Willis St. Wellington
Folio	3742
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

719

27 September 1918

Gilbert Charles Mark Parrott
Lily Pickles

Gilbert Charles Mark Parrott
Lily Pickles
💍 1918/4427

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach Painter

34
31

Wellington
Petone

18 months
5 years

Congregational Church Cambridge Terrace Wellington

3743

27 September 1918

Rev. A. E. Hunt

No	719
Date of Notice	27 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Charles Mark Parrott	Lily Pickles
	💍 1918/4427
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach Painter
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	18 months	5 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church Cambridge Terrace Wellington
Folio	3743
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. Hunt

720

27 September 1918

John Allott Creighton
Lillian Alice Archer

John Allott Creighton
Lillian Alice Archer
💍 1918/4429

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

24
20

Wellington
Wellington South

3 months
Life

St. James' Church Wellington South

3744

Frederick Archer, Father

27 September 1918

Rev. W. Shirer

No	720
Date of Notice	27 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Allott Creighton	Lillian Alice Archer
	💍 1918/4429
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington South
Length of Residence	3 months	Life
Marriage Place	St. James' Church Wellington South
Folio	3744
Consent	Frederick Archer, Father
Date of Certificate	27 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

721

27 September 1918

James Augustus Louis Hay
Margaret Ross McPherson

James Augustus Louis Hay
Margaret Ross McPherson
💍 1918/4430

Bachelor
Spinster

Architect

37
28

Trentham
Wellington

3 months
1 week

Registrar's Office Wellington

3745

27 September 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	721
Date of Notice	27 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Augustus Louis Hay	Margaret Ross McPherson
	💍 1918/4430
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Architect
Age	37	28
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	3745
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

722

28 September 1918

William Hill Philip
Eva Agnes Gibbs

William Hill Philip
Eva Agnes Gibbs
💍 1918/4431

Divorcé Decree Absolute 11 October 1916
Divorcée Decree Absolute 26 May 1912

Teacher

40
32

Taita
Taita

9 years
9 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

3746

28 September 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	722
Date of Notice	28 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Hill Philip	Eva Agnes Gibbs
	💍 1918/4431
Condition	Divorcé Decree Absolute 11 October 1916	Divorcée Decree Absolute 26 May 1912
Profession	Teacher
Age	40	32
Dwelling Place	Taita	Taita
Length of Residence	9 years	9 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	3746
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 September 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).