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 1518

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar R. G. Poullon

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

337

3 May 1918

Lionel Drewitt
Winifred Annie Lloyd Drewitt

Lionel Drewitt
Winifred Annie Lloyd Drewitt
💍 1918/2329

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

34
24

Wellington
Wellington

15 months
23 years

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington

1892

3 May 1918

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	337
Date of Notice	3 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lionel Drewitt	Winifred Annie Lloyd Drewitt
	💍 1918/2329
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 months	23 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington
Folio	1892
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

338

3 May 1918

Henry Edward Beach
Sophia Fredericka Evelyn Hancock

Henry Edward Beach
Sophia Fredericka Evelyn Hancox
💍 1918/2330

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

20
20

Trentham
Wellington

3 months
4 years

Residence of Miss Stewart 28 Hanson St. Wellington

1893

Charles Beach Father, Frederick Hancock Father

3 May 1918

Rev. W. Shirer

No	338
Date of Notice	3 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Edward Beach	Sophia Fredericka Evelyn Hancock
BDM Match (97%)	Henry Edward Beach	Sophia Fredericka Evelyn Hancox
	💍 1918/2330
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Miss Stewart 28 Hanson St. Wellington
Folio	1893
Consent	Charles Beach Father, Frederick Hancock Father
Date of Certificate	3 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

339

3 May 1918

Abraham Wakem
Mabel Wakem

Abraham Wakem
Mabel Shaib
💍 1918/855

Previously Married on 23 February 1918
Previously married on 23 February 1918

Manufacturer

35
18

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
15 years

St Mary of the Angels Boulcott St. Wellington

3 May 1918

Rev. P. Zoukra

No	339
Date of Notice	3 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Abraham Wakem	Mabel Wakem
BDM Match (77%)	Abraham Wakem	Mabel Shaib
	💍 1918/855
Condition	Previously Married on 23 February 1918	Previously married on 23 February 1918
Profession	Manufacturer
Age	35	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Boulcott St. Wellington
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Zoukra

340

3 May 1918

Lawrence Murphy
Lily Irwin Jenkins

Laurence Murphy
Lily Irwin Jenkins
💍 1918/2331

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
22

Wellington
Wellington

18 years
22 years

St Anne's Church Wellington South

1894

3 May 1918

Rev. M. Devoy

No	340
Date of Notice	3 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lawrence Murphy	Lily Irwin Jenkins
BDM Match (97%)	Laurence Murphy	Lily Irwin Jenkins
	💍 1918/2331
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church Wellington South
Folio	1894
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Devoy

341

3 May 1918

William Bankier
Eileen Vaughan Wheeler

William Bankier
Eileen Vaughan Wheeler
💍 1918/2333

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

37
28

Trentham
Wellington

4 months
4 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

1895

3 May 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	341
Date of Notice	3 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Bankier	Eileen Vaughan Wheeler
	💍 1918/2333
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	37	28
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	1895
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

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).