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 1524

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar W. W. Samson

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

367

13 May 1918

Maurice Ryan
Eileen Catherine Blackburn

Maurice Ryan
Eileen Catherine Blackburn
💍 1918/1357

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

36
18

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
8 years

St Anne's Church, Newtown Wellington

1919

Agnes Parlane, Guardian

13 May 1918

Rev. M. Devoy

No	367
Date of Notice	13 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Maurice Ryan	Eileen Catherine Blackburn
	💍 1918/1357
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	36	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	8 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church, Newtown Wellington
Folio	1919
Consent	Agnes Parlane, Guardian
Date of Certificate	13 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Devoy

368

13 May 1918

Henry Stanley Wagstaff
Irene Vera Theresa Meyer

Henry Stanley Wagstaff
Irene Vera Theresa Meyer
💍 1918/1359

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

28
22

Tauherenikau
Wellington

3 weeks
2 years

St Peters Church, Wellington

1920

13 May 1918

Rev. T. M. Kempthorne

No	368
Date of Notice	13 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Stanley Wagstaff	Irene Vera Theresa Meyer
	💍 1918/1359
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Tauherenikau	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 weeks	2 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church, Wellington
Folio	1920
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. M. Kempthorne

369

14 May 1918

George John Blanchard Woodhead
Ellen Paul

George John Blanchard Woodhead
Ellen Paul
💍 1918/1360

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

36
36

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

4 days
34 years

St Joseph's Church, Upper Hutt

1921

14 May 1918

Rev. T. Guinane

No	369
Date of Notice	14 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George John Blanchard Woodhead	Ellen Paul
	💍 1918/1360
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	36	36
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	4 days	34 years
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church, Upper Hutt
Folio	1921
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Guinane

370

14 May 1918

Thomas Henry O'Sullivan
Ellen Marian Walshe

Thomas Henry O'Sullivan
Ellen Marian Walsh
💍 1918/1361

Bachelor
Spinster

Tinsmith

29
31

Lyall Bay
Wellington

3 years
7 years

St Anne's Church, Newtown Wellington

1922

14 May 1918

Rev. D. Campbell

No	370
Date of Notice	14 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry O'Sullivan	Ellen Marian Walshe
BDM Match (97%)	Thomas Henry O'Sullivan	Ellen Marian Walsh
	💍 1918/1361
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tinsmith
Age	29	31
Dwelling Place	Lyall Bay	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church, Newtown Wellington
Folio	1922
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Campbell

371

14 May 1918

William Wilfred Barnby Butterfield
Ruby Margaret Bakewell

William Wilfred Bamley Butterfield
Ruby Margaret Blakewell
💍 1918/1362

Bachelor
Widow 29/6/1913

Grocer

28
34

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
1 year

St Joseph's Church, Buckle St Wellington

1923

14 May 1918

Rev. J. F. O'Connor

No	371
Date of Notice	14 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Wilfred Barnby Butterfield	Ruby Margaret Bakewell
BDM Match (93%)	William Wilfred Bamley Butterfield	Ruby Margaret Blakewell
	💍 1918/1362
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 29/6/1913
Profession	Grocer
Age	28	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church, Buckle St Wellington
Folio	1923
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. O'Connor

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).