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 1803

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar G. 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

15 August 1918

Grant Lawson Sievwright
Mary Jane Le Houguet

Grant Lawson Sievwright
Mary Jane Le Houguet
💍 1918/5476

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Dressmaker

37
38

Nelson
Nelson

17 years
9 days

Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson

18/4618

16 August 1918

Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	39
Date of Notice	15 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Grant Lawson Sievwright	Mary Jane Le Houguet
	💍 1918/5476
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Dressmaker
Age	37	38
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	17 years	9 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson
Folio	18/4618
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

23 August 1918

Percy Stratton Boyes
Phyllis Moira Thompson

Percy Stratton Boyes
Phyllis Moira Thompson
💍 1918/3497

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic duties

25
23

Nelson
Nelson

25 years
6 years

Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson

18/4619

23 August 1918

Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	40
Date of Notice	23 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Stratton Boyes	Phyllis Moira Thompson
	💍 1918/3497
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic duties
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	25 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Nile Street, Nelson
Folio	18/4619
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

26 August 1918

Joseph Stewart
Maud Ellen Hunt

Joseph Stewart
Maud Ellen Hunt
💍 1918/5477

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer
Domestic duties

29
29

Nelson
Nelson

26 years
4 years

Christ Church Cathedral, Nelson

18/4620

28 August 1918

Rev. J. P. Kempthorne, Church of England

No	41
Date of Notice	26 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Stewart	Maud Ellen Hunt
	💍 1918/5477
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer	Domestic duties
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	26 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Christ Church Cathedral, Nelson
Folio	18/4620
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. P. Kempthorne, Church of England

16 September 1918

George Donaldson
Constance Beatrice Rayner

George Donaldson
Constance Beatrice Rayner
💍 1918/5237

Bachelor
Spinster

Cable Operator
Surgical and Medical nurse

27
26

Wellington
Cable Bay, Nelson

12 months
3 days

Dwelling of William Rayner, Cable Bay, Nelson

18/4372

16 September 1918

Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	42
Date of Notice	16 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Donaldson	Constance Beatrice Rayner
	💍 1918/5237
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cable Operator	Surgical and Medical nurse
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Cable Bay, Nelson
Length of Residence	12 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Dwelling of William Rayner, Cable Bay, Nelson
Folio	18/4372
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

21 September 1918

James Caradus
Ida Verne Dement

James Caradus
Ida Verne Dement
💍 1918/5478

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Officer
School Teacher

30
26

Nelson
Nelson

4 years

All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson

18/4621

23 September 1918

Rev. W. Wollstein, Church of England

No	43
Date of Notice	21 September 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Caradus	Ida Verne Dement
	💍 1918/5478
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Officer	School Teacher
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence		4 years
Marriage Place	All Saints' Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson
Folio	18/4621
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 September 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Wollstein, 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).