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 1555

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

785

22 October 1918

Maurice Leslie Meakin
Alice May Williams

Maurice Leslie Meakin
Alice May Williams
💍 1918/5594

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

22
19

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
15 years, Newtown

Church of Christ

5185

Alice Williams, Mother

22 October 1918

Rev. W. Phillips

No	785
Date of Notice	22 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Maurice Leslie Meakin	Alice May Williams
	💍 1918/5594
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	15 years, Newtown
Marriage Place	Church of Christ
Folio	5185
Consent	Alice Williams, Mother
Date of Certificate	22 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Phillips

786

23 October 1918

Austin Knapp
Pansy Beryl Osborne

Austin Knapp
Pansey Beryl Osborne
💍 1918/5595

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Clerk

31
28

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
2 weeks, Wellington

St Mark's Church, Wellington

5186

23 October 1918

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	786
Date of Notice	23 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Austin Knapp	Pansy Beryl Osborne
BDM Match (98%)	Austin Knapp	Pansey Beryl Osborne
	💍 1918/5595
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Clerk
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 weeks, Wellington
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	5186
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

787

23 October 1918

Francis Thomas Martin
Gertrude Mary Phillips

Francis Thomas Martin
Gertrude Mary Phillips
💍 1918/5596

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

24
22

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

Life
Life

The Residence of A. A. Whiteman, River Bank Street, Upper Hutt

5187

23 October 1918

Rev. L. J. Daly

No	787
Date of Notice	23 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Thomas Martin	Gertrude Mary Phillips
	💍 1918/5596
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	The Residence of A. A. Whiteman, River Bank Street, Upper Hutt
Folio	5187
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. L. J. Daly

788

23 October 1918

Murdoch McKenzie McRae
Ivy Phoebe Jorns

Murdo McKenzie McRae
Ivy Phoebe Iorns
💍 1918/5597

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

38
31

Wellington
Wellington

2 days
5 days, Wellington

St John's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

5188

23 October 1918

Rev. J. Gibb

No	788
Date of Notice	23 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Murdoch McKenzie McRae	Ivy Phoebe Jorns
BDM Match (92%)	Murdo McKenzie McRae	Ivy Phoebe Iorns
	💍 1918/5597
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	38	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 days	5 days, Wellington
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	5188
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

789

24 October 1918

John Marsden Smith
Muriel Lucy Poynter

John Marsden Smith
Muriel Lucy Poynter
💍 1918/5598

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

30
20

Trentham
Petone

18 mos.
20 years, Wellington

St Peter's Church, Wellington

5189

George Hutton Poynter, Father

24 October 1918

Rev. F. M. Kempthorne

No	789
Date of Notice	24 October 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Marsden Smith	Muriel Lucy Poynter
	💍 1918/5598
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Petone
Length of Residence	18 mos.	20 years, Wellington
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	5189
Consent	George Hutton Poynter, Father
Date of Certificate	24 October 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. M. Kempthorne

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).