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 1613

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1918 Registrar R. G. Coullon

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

800

29 October 1918

Harold James Doidge
Kathleen Hannah Pegley

Harold James Doidge
Kathleen Hannah Pegley
💍 1918/5610

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
23 years

St Hilda's Church, Island Bay

5200

29 October 1918

Rev. J. T. Castle

No	800
Date of Notice	29 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold James Doidge	Kathleen Hannah Pegley
	💍 1918/5610
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	23 years
Marriage Place	St Hilda's Church, Island Bay
Folio	5200
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. T. Castle

801

29 October 1918

Francis Walter Jennens
Aileen Leon Henning

Francis Walter Jennens
Aileen Leov Kenning
💍 1918/5643

Bachelor
Spinster

Tramway Employee

21
19

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
14 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

5201

Richard Kenning Henning, Father

29 October 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	801
Date of Notice	29 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Walter Jennens	Aileen Leon Henning
BDM Match (95%)	Francis Walter Jennens	Aileen Leov Kenning
	💍 1918/5643
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tramway Employee
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	14 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	5201
Consent	Richard Kenning Henning, Father
Date of Certificate	29 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

802

29 October 1918

William Wardrop Waddilove
Isabella Highet

William Wardrop Waddilova
Isabella Highet
💍 1918/5654

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

30
37

Wellington
Wellington

16 years
30 years

Presbyterian Church, Roseneath, Wellington

5202

29 October 1918

Rev. H. Beggs

No	802
Date of Notice	29 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Wardrop Waddilove	Isabella Highet
BDM Match (98%)	William Wardrop Waddilova	Isabella Highet
	💍 1918/5654
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	30	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Roseneath, Wellington
Folio	5202
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Beggs

803

29 October 1918

Albert Goodman
Minnie Elizabeth Scrimshaw

Albert Goodman
Minnie Elizabeth Scrimshaw
💍 1918/5661

Divorced 21/10/1918
Spinster

Horse Trainer

43
33

Trentham
Trentham

15 years
15 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

5203

29 October 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	803
Date of Notice	29 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Goodman	Minnie Elizabeth Scrimshaw
	💍 1918/5661
Condition	Divorced 21/10/1918	Spinster
Profession	Horse Trainer
Age	43	33
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Trentham
Length of Residence	15 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	5203
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

804

30 October 1918

Ernest Albert Beer
Laura Melita Goddard

Ernest Albert Beer
Laura Melita Goddard
💍 1918/5662

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

20
21

Wellington
Wellington

10 days
10 years

Church of England, Wadestown

5204

Albert Meluish Beer, Father

30 October 1918

Rev. J. C. Jones

No	804
Date of Notice	30 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Albert Beer	Laura Melita Goddard
	💍 1918/5662
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 days	10 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Wadestown
Folio	5204
Consent	Albert Meluish Beer, Father
Date of Certificate	30 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. Jones

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).