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 1458

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

19 January 1918

John Joseph Burgess
Elizabeth Ann Kidd

John Joseph Burgess
Elizabeth Ann Kidd
💍 1918/88

Divorced Decree Absolute 25/9/1917
Spinster

Soldier

32
20

Featherston
Wellington

2 months
3 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

127

William Kidd Father

19 January 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	36
Date of Notice	19 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Joseph Burgess	Elizabeth Ann Kidd
	💍 1918/88
Condition	Divorced Decree Absolute 25/9/1917	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	32	20
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	127
Consent	William Kidd Father
Date of Certificate	19 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

21 January 1918

Joseph Leo Grant
Phoebe Ethel Ramsey

Joseph Leo Grant
Phoebe Ethel Ramsey
💍 1918/95

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Mechanic

25
25

Wellington
Wellington

7 months
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

128

21 January 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	37
Date of Notice	21 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Leo Grant	Phoebe Ethel Ramsey
	💍 1918/95
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Mechanic
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 months	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	128
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

21 January 1918

Cecil Lewis Smallbone
Mildred Ellen Henry

Cecil Lewis Smallbone
Mildred Ellen Henry
💍 1918/96

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

21
22

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

St Mary's Church Karori

129

21 January 1918

Rev. G. Y. Woodward

No	38
Date of Notice	21 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Lewis Smallbone	Mildred Ellen Henry
	💍 1918/96
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	St Mary's Church Karori
Folio	129
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Y. Woodward

21 January 1918

Clarence Smith
Elvina Elizabeth Smith

Clarence Smith
Elvina Elizabeth Smith
💍 1918/97

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

29
22

Khandallah
Wellington

8 years
12 years

St Paul's Pro Cathedral, Wellington

130

21 January 1918

Rev. G. N. Turner

No	39
Date of Notice	21 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Smith	Elvina Elizabeth Smith
	💍 1918/97
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Khandallah	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	130
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. N. Turner

23 January 1918

Sidney Robert McGuire
Alice Elizabeth Maud Belaver

Sidney Robert McGuire
Alice Elizabeth Maud Beaver
💍 1918/98

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway employee

22
23

Wellington
Wellington

15 years
5 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

131

23 January 1918

Deputy Registrar

No	40
Date of Notice	23 January 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Robert McGuire	Alice Elizabeth Maud Belaver
BDM Match (98%)	Sidney Robert McGuire	Alice Elizabeth Maud Beaver
	💍 1918/98
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway employee
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	131
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 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).