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 1474

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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

116

18 February 1918

Lachlan Taylor Brown
Harriett Annie Baker

Lachlan Taylor Brown
Harriet Annie Baker
💍 1918/865

Bachelor
Spinster

Architect

41
40

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
20 days

St Michael & All Angels Church, Kelburn

204

18 February 1918

Rev. A. W. Payne

No	116
Date of Notice	18 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lachlan Taylor Brown	Harriett Annie Baker
BDM Match (98%)	Lachlan Taylor Brown	Harriet Annie Baker
	💍 1918/865
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Architect
Age	41	40
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	20 days
Marriage Place	St Michael & All Angels Church, Kelburn
Folio	204
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. W. Payne

117

18 February 1918

Leslie James Barnard
Amy May Springer

Leslie James Barnard
Amy May Springer
💍 1918/866

Bachelor
Spinster

Wool Classer

30
23

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
1 month

Methodist Parsonage, 21 Hankey St, Wellington

205

18 February 1918

Rev. G. H. Smith

No	117
Date of Notice	18 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie James Barnard	Amy May Springer
	💍 1918/866
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wool Classer
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, 21 Hankey St, Wellington
Folio	205
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Smith

118

19 February 1918

Richard Walter White
Marjorie Sims

Richard Walter White
Marjorie Sims
💍 1918/867

Bachelor
Spinster

Variety Artiste
Variety Artiste

29
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

206

19 February 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	118
Date of Notice	19 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Walter White	Marjorie Sims
	💍 1918/867
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Variety Artiste	Variety Artiste
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	206
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

119

19 February 1918

Joseph Henry Thomas
Mary Ann Smith

Joseph Henry Thomas
Mary Ann Smith
💍 1918/868

Bachelor
Spinster

Compositor

21
19

Wellington
Wellington

13 years
2 years

St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott St, Wellington

207

James Henderson Smith, Father

19 February 1918

Rev. S. Mahony

No	119
Date of Notice	19 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Henry Thomas	Mary Ann Smith
	💍 1918/868
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Compositor
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott St, Wellington
Folio	207
Consent	James Henderson Smith, Father
Date of Certificate	19 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Mahony

120

19 February 1918

Octavius Louis Thoma-Harrison
Olive Edith Cattell-Webb

Octavius Louis Thomas Harrison
Olive Edith Cattell-Webb
💍 1918/869

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

30
23

Kilbirnie
Miramar

11 years
8 years

All Saints Church, Kilbirnie

208

19 February 1918

Rev. J. W. Robinson

No	120
Date of Notice	19 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Octavius Louis Thoma-Harrison	Olive Edith Cattell-Webb
BDM Match (97%)	Octavius Louis Thomas Harrison	Olive Edith Cattell-Webb
	💍 1918/869
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Kilbirnie	Miramar
Length of Residence	11 years	8 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	208
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. W. Robinson

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).