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 1597

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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

870

9 December 1918

Fritz Hugo Dolling
Hilda Rita Hepburn

Fritz Hugo Dolling
Hilda Rita Hepburn
💍 1918/5700

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel Manager

27
23

Petone
Petone

18 years
5 years

St Augustines Church, Petone

5266

9 December 1918

Rev. H. T. Stealey

No	870
Date of Notice	9 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fritz Hugo Dolling	Hilda Rita Hepburn
	💍 1918/5700
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel Manager
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	18 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St Augustines Church, Petone
Folio	5266
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. T. Stealey

871

9 December 1918

Phillip Hori Tauwhare
Adelle Helene Georgine Lemcke

Phillip Hori Tanwhare
Adele Helene Georgine Lemcke
💍 1918/5701

Widower Sept 1908
Spinster

Soldier

48
31

Ohariu
Ohariu

2 years
2 years

Registrars Office Wellington

5267

9 December 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	871
Date of Notice	9 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Phillip Hori Tauwhare	Adelle Helene Georgine Lemcke
BDM Match (96%)	Phillip Hori Tanwhare	Adele Helene Georgine Lemcke
	💍 1918/5701
Condition	Widower Sept 1908	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	48	31
Dwelling Place	Ohariu	Ohariu
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	5267
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

872

9 December 1918

Charles Edward Rogers
Winifred Myrtle Collett

Charles Edward Rogers
Winifred Myrtle Collett
💍 1918/5702

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

33
30

Trentham
Petone

33 years
30 years

Congregational Church The Terrace Wellington

5268

9 December 1918

Rev. J. Reed Glasson

No	872
Date of Notice	9 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Rogers	Winifred Myrtle Collett
	💍 1918/5702
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	33	30
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Petone
Length of Residence	33 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church The Terrace Wellington
Folio	5268
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Reed Glasson

873

10 December 1918

Gordon Reginald Smith
Ina Emily Featherstone

Gordon Reginald Smith
Ina Emily Featherstone
💍 1918/5703

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

26
22

Petone
Petone

12 years
Life

Kent-Terrace Presbyterian Church Wellington

5269

10 December 1918

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	873
Date of Notice	10 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Reginald Smith	Ina Emily Featherstone
	💍 1918/5703
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	12 years	Life
Marriage Place	Kent-Terrace Presbyterian Church Wellington
Folio	5269
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

874

10 December 1918

George Patrick Wareing
Margaret Neebey

George Patrick Wareing
Margaret Neeley
💍 1918/5705

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician

25
26

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
6 months

St Mary of the Angels Boulcott Street Wellington

5270

10 December 1918

Rev. P. Hoare

No	874
Date of Notice	10 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Patrick Wareing	Margaret Neebey
BDM Match (97%)	George Patrick Wareing	Margaret Neeley
	💍 1918/5705
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	6 months
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Boulcott Street Wellington
Folio	5270
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Hoare

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).