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 1644

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1918 Registrar R. A. Donelon

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

955

30 December 1918

Thomas Brookston
Annie Sheehan

Thomas Crookston
Annie Sheehan
💍 1919/287

Bachelor
Spinster

Waterside Worker

34
33

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
Life

Roman Catholic Presbytery Patterson Street Wellington

36/1919

30 December 1918

Rev. D. H. Hurley

No	955
Date of Notice	30 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Brookston	Annie Sheehan
BDM Match (97%)	Thomas Crookston	Annie Sheehan
	💍 1919/287
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Waterside Worker
Age	34	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	Life
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Presbytery Patterson Street Wellington
Folio	36/1919
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. H. Hurley

956

30 December 1918

Henry Alexander Horrocks
Gladys Swinburne Cook

Henry Alexander Horrocks
Gladys Swinburne Cork
💍 1918/5744

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

25
25

Plimmerton Wellington
Plimmerton Wellington

6 Days
6 Days

St Pauls Pro Cathedral Wellington

5336

30 December 1918

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	956
Date of Notice	30 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Alexander Horrocks	Gladys Swinburne Cook
BDM Match (98%)	Henry Alexander Horrocks	Gladys Swinburne Cork
	💍 1918/5744
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Plimmerton Wellington	Plimmerton Wellington
Length of Residence	6 Days	6 Days
Marriage Place	St Pauls Pro Cathedral Wellington
Folio	5336
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

957

31 December 1918

Gordon McIntosh
Lily Beatrice Wheatley

Gordon McIntosh
Lily Beatrice Wheatley
💍 1919/288

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist

26
26

Trentham
Petone

11 months
12 months

St Augustines Church Petone

37/1919

31 December 1918

Rev. H. T. Stealey

No	957
Date of Notice	31 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon McIntosh	Lily Beatrice Wheatley
	💍 1919/288
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Petone
Length of Residence	11 months	12 months
Marriage Place	St Augustines Church Petone
Folio	37/1919
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. T. Stealey

958

31 December 1918

Gordon Kinross Crawford
Dorothy McDonald

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

32
23

Wellington
Wellington

9 Days
23 years

Methodist Church Taranaki Street Wellington

38 (Not sold see attached)

31 December 1918

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	958
Date of Notice	31 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Kinross Crawford	Dorothy McDonald
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 Days	23 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	38 (Not sold see attached)
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

959

31 December 1918

Cyril George Hayward
Minnie Frances Bell

Cyril George Hayward
Mimie Frances Bell
💍 1919/289

Bachelor
Spinster

Stock Agent

30
23

Lyall Bay Wellington
Lyall Bay Wellington

1 week
3 months

St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

31 December 1918

Rev. D. H. Hurley

No	959
Date of Notice	31 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril George Hayward	Minnie Frances Bell
BDM Match (95%)	Cyril George Hayward	Mimie Frances Bell
	💍 1919/289
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stock Agent
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Lyall Bay Wellington	Lyall Bay Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	3 months
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	39
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. H. Hurley

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).