Intentions to Marry, 1918 Kaikoura to Rakaia

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840479, 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.

1918e contains pages 1647-2188, covering districts from Kaikoura to Rakaia

Page 1725

District of Buller Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar J. C. Dale

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

3 July 1918

Frederic Connew
Edith McDowell

Frederic Connew
Ethel McDowell
💍 1918/4986

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic

21
18

Westport
Westport

6 days
18 years

St John's Church of England, Westport

18/4588

Alexander McDowell, father

3 July 1918

A. T. Coursey, Church of England

No	14
Date of Notice	3 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederic Connew	Edith McDowell
BDM Match (86%)	Frederic Connew	Ethel McDowell
	💍 1918/4986
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	6 days	18 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church of England, Westport
Folio	18/4588
Consent	Alexander McDowell, father
Date of Certificate	3 July 1918
Officiating Minister	A. T. Coursey, Church of England

9 July 1918

Alfred Alfred Kenning
Myrtle Edna Gibson

Wilfred Alfred Kenning
Myrtle Edna Gibson
💍 1918/4987

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor garage proprietor
Milliner

29
20

Westport
Westport

8 days
12 years

Residence of H. J. C. Gibson, Wakefield Street, Westport

18/4589

Henry Gibson, father

9 July 1918

J. T. Coursey, Church of England

No	15
Date of Notice	9 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Alfred Kenning	Myrtle Edna Gibson
BDM Match (95%)	Wilfred Alfred Kenning	Myrtle Edna Gibson
	💍 1918/4987
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor garage proprietor	Milliner
Age	29	20
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	8 days	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of H. J. C. Gibson, Wakefield Street, Westport
Folio	18/4589
Consent	Henry Gibson, father
Date of Certificate	9 July 1918
Officiating Minister	J. T. Coursey, Church of England

11 July 1918

George McKinley
Florence Phoebe Madeline Sangwell

George McKinlay
Florence Phoebe Madeline Sangwill
💍 1918/4988

Bachelor
Spinster

Coalminer
Domestic

25
20

Westport
Westport

3 days
20 years

Residence of John Sangwell, Chamberlain Street, Westport

18/4590

John Sangwell, father

11 July 1918

R. Dudley, Methodist

No	16
Date of Notice	11 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George McKinley	Florence Phoebe Madeline Sangwell
BDM Match (95%)	George McKinlay	Florence Phoebe Madeline Sangwill
	💍 1918/4988
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coalminer	Domestic
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of John Sangwell, Chamberlain Street, Westport
Folio	18/4590
Consent	John Sangwell, father
Date of Certificate	11 July 1918
Officiating Minister	R. Dudley, Methodist

23 July 1918

Cecil Sharpe
Florence Dolly Evelyn Falla

Cecil Sharpe
Florence Dolly Evelyn Falla
💍 1918/4989

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine officer
Clerk

25
27

Westport
Westport

3 days
27 years

St John's Church of England, Westport

18/4591

23 July 1918

J. T. Coursey, Church of England

No	17
Date of Notice	23 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Sharpe	Florence Dolly Evelyn Falla
	💍 1918/4989
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine officer	Clerk
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	3 days	27 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church of England, Westport
Folio	18/4591
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 July 1918
Officiating Minister	J. T. Coursey, Church of England

13 August 1918

George Herbert Taylor
Margaret Ann Jones

George Herbert Taylor
Margaret Ann Jones
💍 1918/4990

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway employee
House duties

19
19

Westport
Westport

19 years
3 days

Residence of Mr. Geo. Taylor, Gladstone Street, Westport

18/4592

George Edward John Taylor, father; Warwick Llewellyn Jones, father

13 August 1918

R. Dudley, Methodist

No	18
Date of Notice	13 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Herbert Taylor	Margaret Ann Jones
	💍 1918/4990
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway employee	House duties
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	19 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Geo. Taylor, Gladstone Street, Westport
Folio	18/4592
Consent	George Edward John Taylor, father; Warwick Llewellyn Jones, father
Date of Certificate	13 August 1918
Officiating Minister	R. Dudley, Methodist

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).