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 1470

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

9 February 1918

Clarence Frederick Cummins
Ivy Maude Tredennick

Clarence Frederick Cummins
Ivy Maude Tredennick
💍 1918/823

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

26
23

Wellington
Lyttelton

24 years
23 years

Registrars Office Wellington

186 Lyttelton

9 February 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	96
Date of Notice	9 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Frederick Cummins	Ivy Maude Tredennick
	💍 1918/823
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	24 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	186 Lyttelton
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

11 February 1918

Alexander George Christopher
Hilda Maud Wright

Alexander George Christopher
Hilda Maud Wright
💍 1918/824

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

48
36

Wellington
Kilbirnie

8 months
3 days

All Saints Church Kilbirnie

187

11 February 1918

Rev. J. H. Sykes

No	97
Date of Notice	11 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander George Christopher	Hilda Maud Wright
	💍 1918/824
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	48	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	8 months	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Kilbirnie
Folio	187
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Sykes

11 February 1918

Norman John Henry Strawbridge
Susan Harriett Winter

Norman John Henry Strawbridge
Susan Harriett Winter
💍 1918/825

Bachelor
Spinster

Taxi Driver

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

8 months
19 years

Registrars Office Wellington

188

11 February 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	98
Date of Notice	11 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman John Henry Strawbridge	Susan Harriett Winter
	💍 1918/825
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Taxi Driver
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	188
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

11 February 1918

Fursey George Scarf
Rachel May Rogers

Fursey George Scarf
Rachel May Rogers
💍 1918/826

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

26
34

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
6 days

St. Mary's Presbytery Boulcott St. Wellington

189

11 February 1918

Rev. S. Mahony

No	99
Date of Notice	11 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fursey George Scarf	Rachel May Rogers
	💍 1918/826
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	26	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	6 days
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Presbytery Boulcott St. Wellington
Folio	189
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Mahony

100

11 February 1918

Ashton Emile John Webster
Myra Aitken

Ashton Emile John Webster
Myra Aitken
💍 1918/827

Bachelor
Spinster

Meat Inspector

27
20

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
4 months

St John's Church Willis St. Wellington

190

Wilhelmina Aitken Mother

11 February 1918

Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

No	100
Date of Notice	11 February 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ashton Emile John Webster	Myra Aitken
	💍 1918/827
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Meat Inspector
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	4 months
Marriage Place	St John's Church Willis St. Wellington
Folio	190
Consent	Wilhelmina Aitken Mother
Date of Certificate	11 February 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb D.D.

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).