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 1798

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 1918 Registrar S. Lyon

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

29 May 1918

Arthur Humphrey Curtis
Winifred Inez Rix-Trott

Arthur Humphrey Curtis
Winifred Inez Rix-Trott
💍 1918/3579

Bachelor
Spinster

Doctor
Domestic Duties

34
26

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
5 months

Cathedral, Nelson

18/2966

29 May 1918

Rev. G. E. Weeks, Church of England

No	23
Date of Notice	29 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Humphrey Curtis	Winifred Inez Rix-Trott
	💍 1918/3579
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Doctor	Domestic Duties
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	5 months
Marriage Place	Cathedral, Nelson
Folio	18/2966
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. E. Weeks, Church of England

30 May 1918

Albert Persico
Mary Margaret Paulina Bensemann

Albert Persico
Mary Margaret Paulina Bensemann
💍 1918/3580

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
Domestic duties

31
30

Nelson
Nelson

6 years
5 years

Catholic Presbytery, Manuka Street, Nelson

18/2967

4 June 1918

Rev. K. J. McGrath, Roman Catholic

No	24
Date of Notice	30 May 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Persico	Mary Margaret Paulina Bensemann
	💍 1918/3580
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	Domestic duties
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	6 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Presbytery, Manuka Street, Nelson
Folio	18/2967
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. K. J. McGrath, Roman Catholic

7 June 1918

Andrew Kenneth Liddell
Elizabeth Marie Barrowman

Andrew Kenneth Liddell
Elizabeth Marie Barrowman
💍 1918/3581

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer
Nurse

23
25

Nelson
Nelson

3 days
6 months

Dwelling of Mr. Harry Sherwood, Vanguard Street, Nelson

18/2968

10 June 1918

Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

No	25
Date of Notice	7 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Kenneth Liddell	Elizabeth Marie Barrowman
	💍 1918/3581
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer	Nurse
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	6 months
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Mr. Harry Sherwood, Vanguard Street, Nelson
Folio	18/2968
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gibb, Presbyterian

12 June 1918

Claude Abram
Ida Emma Cotton

Claude Abram
Ida Emma Cotton
💍 1918/3582

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic

31
28

Nelson
Nelson

2 years
28 years

Baptist Church, Bridge Street, Nelson

18/2969

12 June 1918

Rev. J. Laird, Baptist

No	26
Date of Notice	12 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Abram	Ida Emma Cotton
	💍 1918/3582
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	2 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Bridge Street, Nelson
Folio	18/2969
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Laird, Baptist

13 June 1918

Tom Elliott
Margaret Rose Wilson

Tom Elliott
Rosa Wilson
💍 1918/3584

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

35
32

Nelson
Nelson

35 years
32 years

Cathedral, Nelson.

18/2970

13 June 1918

Rev. G. E. Weeks, Church of England.

No	27
Date of Notice	13 June 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Tom Elliott	Margaret Rose Wilson
BDM Match (75%)	Tom Elliott	Rosa Wilson
	💍 1918/3584
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	35	32
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Nelson
Length of Residence	35 years	32 years
Marriage Place	Cathedral, Nelson.
Folio	18/2970
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 June 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. E. Weeks, 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).