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 1540

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1918 Registrar R. S. 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

935

23 December 1918

Ernest Leslie Higgs
Margaret Watson

Ernest Leslie Higgs
Margaret Watson
💍 1918/5680

James Henry Lewis
Margaret Watson
💍 1918/1714

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician

27
24

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
2 years

Registrars Office Wellington.

5320

23 December 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	935
Date of Notice	23 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Leslie Higgs	Margaret Watson
	💍 1918/5680
BDM Match (66%)	James Henry Lewis	Margaret Watson
	💍 1918/1714
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington.
Folio	5320
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

936

23 December 1918

Eric Augustus Wallace Rowe
Mildred Olive Browne

Eric Augustus Wallace Rowe
Mildred Olive Browne
💍 1919/307

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

Life
5 years

St James' Church Wellington. South

32/1919

23 December 1918

Rev. W. Shirer

No	936
Date of Notice	23 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Augustus Wallace Rowe	Mildred Olive Browne
	💍 1919/307
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	5 years
Marriage Place	St James' Church Wellington. South
Folio	32/1919
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

937

23 December 1918

Herbert Kenneth Harre
Norma Harriet Gray

Herbert Kenneth Harre
Norma Harriet Gray
💍 1918/5681

Bachelor
Spinster

Advertising Manager

28
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Methodist Church Lower Hutt

5321

Charles Gray father

23 December 1918

Rev. D. J. Murray

No	937
Date of Notice	23 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Kenneth Harre	Norma Harriet Gray
	💍 1918/5681
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Advertising Manager
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Lower Hutt
Folio	5321
Consent	Charles Gray father
Date of Certificate	23 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. J. Murray

938

23 December 1918

George Ernest Bradley
Rubina Lydia Taylor

George Ernest Bradley
Rubina Lydia Taylor
💍 1918/5682

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

8 months
5 months

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Wellington.

5322

23 December 1918

Rev. G. E. Porter

No	938
Date of Notice	23 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Ernest Bradley	Rubina Lydia Taylor
	💍 1918/5682
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	5 months
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Wellington.
Folio	5322
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. E. Porter

939

23 December 1918

Daniel Myers
Mary Catherine Larkin

Daniel Myers
Mary Catherine Larkin
💍 1918/5683

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee

38
30

Wellington
Wellington

13 years
3 years

St Mary of the Angels Boulcott St Wellington.

5323

23 December 1918

Rev. P. Hoare

No	939
Date of Notice	23 December 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Myers	Mary Catherine Larkin
	💍 1918/5683
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	38	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Boulcott St Wellington.
Folio	5323
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 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).