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 1797

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar E. Tyson

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 April 1918

Reginald Joseph Thomas Newport
Ethel May Pollock

Reginald Joseph Thomas Newport
Ethel May Pollock
💍 1918/3574

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

32
31

Nelson
Nelson

32 years
20 years

Catholic Presbytery, Manuka Street, Nelson

18/2961

9 April 1918

Rev. K. J. McGrath, Roman Catholic

No	18
Date of Notice	9 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Joseph Thomas Newport	Ethel May Pollock
	💍 1918/3574
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	32 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Presbytery, Manuka Street, Nelson
Folio	18/2961
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. K. J. McGrath, Roman Catholic

15 April 1918

Walter Simpson Birdsall
Effie Prudence White

Walter Simpson Birdsall
Effie Prudence White
💍 1918/3575

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
School teacher

23
23

Nelson
Nelson

3 years

All Saints' Church of England, Vanguard Street, Nelson

18/2962

15 April 1918

Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

No	19
Date of Notice	15 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Simpson Birdsall	Effie Prudence White
	💍 1918/3575
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	School teacher
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence		3 years
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church of England, Vanguard Street, Nelson
Folio	18/2962
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

15 April 1918

George Hendry
Annie Zella Brough

George Hendry
Annie Zella Brough
💍 1918/3576

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman
Tailoress

31
29

Nelson
Nelson

12 years
29 years

Dwelling of Jonathan Brough, Washington Valley, Nelson.

18/2963

15 April 1918

Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

No	20
Date of Notice	15 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Hendry	Annie Zella Brough
	💍 1918/3576
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman	Tailoress
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	12 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Jonathan Brough, Washington Valley, Nelson.
Folio	18/2963
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

23 April 1918

Walter Todd
Ruby Ida Thomas

Walter Todd
Ruby Ida Thomas
💍 1918/3577

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier and coal Merchant
Domestic

37
22

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
3 days

All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson.

18/2964

23 April 1918

Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

No	21
Date of Notice	23 April 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Todd	Ruby Ida Thomas
	💍 1918/3577
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier and coal Merchant	Domestic
Age	37	22
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson.
Folio	18/2964
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 April 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

2 May 1918

Francis Henry Gill
Amy Elizabeth Frost

Francis Henry Gill
Amy Elizabeth Frost
💍 1918/3578

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

21
22

Nelson
Nelson

21 years
22 years

St. John's Church, Suburban North, Wakapuaka

18/2965

2 May 1918

Rev. F. J. Ferry, Church of England

No	22
Date of Notice	2 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Henry Gill	Amy Elizabeth Frost
	💍 1918/3578
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	21 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Suburban North, Wakapuaka
Folio	18/2965
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. J. Ferry, Church of England

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).