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 1500

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar J. R. 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

247

2 April 1918

Roderick Gordon Bell
Nora Toko Chapman

Roderick Gordon Bell
Nora Toko Chapman
💍 1918/2269

Bachelor
Spinster

Master Mariner

36
23

Wellington
Wellington

7 days
7 years

The Parsonage, 38 McFarlane St, Wellington

1808

2 April 1918

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	247
Date of Notice	2 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roderick Gordon Bell	Nora Toko Chapman
	💍 1918/2269
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master Mariner
Age	36	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days	7 years
Marriage Place	The Parsonage, 38 McFarlane St, Wellington
Folio	1808
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

248

2 April 1918

George Grant
Norah Schweigaard Hannestad

George Grant
Norah Schweigaard Nannestad
💍 1918/2270

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

31
31

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
28 years

St Marks Church, Wellington

1809

2 April 1918

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	248
Date of Notice	2 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Grant	Norah Schweigaard Hannestad
BDM Match (98%)	George Grant	Norah Schweigaard Nannestad
	💍 1918/2270
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	28 years
Marriage Place	St Marks Church, Wellington
Folio	1809
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

249

2 April 1918

William Arthur Wilton
Ethel Taylor

William Arthur William
Ethel Taylor
💍 1918/2247

Divorced Decree Absolute 13/5/1916
Spinster

Bootmaker

52
27

Petone
Petone

12 years
Life

Residence of Mr Wm Taylor, Alicetown, Lower Hutt

1810

2 April 1918

Mr F. J. Marshall

No	249
Date of Notice	2 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arthur Wilton	Ethel Taylor
BDM Match (91%)	William Arthur William	Ethel Taylor
	💍 1918/2247
Condition	Divorced Decree Absolute 13/5/1916	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	52	27
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	12 years	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Wm Taylor, Alicetown, Lower Hutt
Folio	1810
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Mr F. J. Marshall

250

2 April 1918

Christian Hunger
Lizzie Finn Scanlon

Christian Hunger
Lizzie Finn Scolon
💍 1918/2248

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

26
36

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
4 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

1811

2 April 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	250
Date of Notice	2 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christian Hunger	Lizzie Finn Scanlon
BDM Match (95%)	Christian Hunger	Lizzie Finn Scolon
	💍 1918/2248
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	26	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	1811
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

251

3 April 1918

John William Bailey
Mabel Alice Beck

John William Bailey
Mabel Alice Beck
💍 1918/2249

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
24

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
4 years

Trinity Methodist Church, Riddiford Street, Newtown

1812

3 April 1918

Rev. E. Drake

No	251
Date of Notice	3 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Bailey	Mabel Alice Beck
	💍 1918/2249
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	4 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Riddiford Street, Newtown
Folio	1812
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Drake

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).