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 1594

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

783

26 September 1918

Alfred Charles Brown
Janey Finnerty

Alfred Charles Brown
Janey Finnerty
💍 1918/4421

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

22
22

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
18 months

Residence of William Arthur Brown, 66 Wright Street, Wellington

3737

26 September 1918

Rev. J. T. Pinfold

No	783
Date of Notice	26 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Charles Brown	Janey Finnerty
	💍 1918/4421
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	18 months
Marriage Place	Residence of William Arthur Brown, 66 Wright Street, Wellington
Folio	3737
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. T. Pinfold

784

26 September 1918

Oliver Millen Paulin
Jessie Catherine Rabe

Oliver Miller Pauline
Jessie Catherine Rabe
💍 1918/4422

Bachelor
Spinster

Dentist

23
19

Trentham
Wellington

6 months
19 years

Residence of Mrs Jemima Sybelba Rabe, 8 Springfield Terrace, Kelburn

3738

Jemima Sybelba Rabe, Mother.

26 September 1918

Rev. W. J. Comrie

No	784
Date of Notice	26 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oliver Millen Paulin	Jessie Catherine Rabe
BDM Match (95%)	Oliver Miller Pauline	Jessie Catherine Rabe
	💍 1918/4422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dentist
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Jemima Sybelba Rabe, 8 Springfield Terrace, Kelburn
Folio	3738
Consent	Jemima Sybelba Rabe, Mother.
Date of Certificate	26 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Comrie

785

26 September 1918

Percy Enoch Ching
Elsie Olive Scott

Percy Enoch Ching
Elsie Olive Scott
💍 1918/4423

Widower 11/11/1913
Spinster

Soldier

37
23

Trentham
Wellington

3 years
2 years

Residence of Mrs Knapp, 310 Taranaki Street, Wellington

3739

26 September 1918

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	785
Date of Notice	26 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Enoch Ching	Elsie Olive Scott
	💍 1918/4423
Condition	Widower 11/11/1913	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	37	23
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Knapp, 310 Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	3739
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

786

27 September 1918

William David Dobson
Dorothy Sybil Scott

William David Dobson
Dorothy Sylie Scott
💍 1918/4424

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

22 years
22 years

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

3740

27 September 1918

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	786
Date of Notice	27 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William David Dobson	Dorothy Sybil Scott
BDM Match (95%)	William David Dobson	Dorothy Sylie Scott
	💍 1918/4424
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	3740
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

787

27 September 1918

Thomas Kirkham
Constance Barker

Thomas Kirkham
Constance Barker
💍 1918/4425

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

28
24

Trentham
Wellington Marton

3 months
1 year

Presbyterian Institute, Trentham

3741

27 September 1918

Rev. D. D. Scott

No	787
Date of Notice	27 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Kirkham	Constance Barker
	💍 1918/4425
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington Marton
Length of Residence	3 months	1 year
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Institute, Trentham
Folio	3741
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. D. Scott

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).