Intentions to Marry, 1918 Rangiora to Chatham Islands (includes Otago)

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840480, 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.

1918f contains pages 2189-2777, covering districts from Rangiora to Chatham Islands (includes Otago)

Page 2529

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 1918 Registrar R. T. Barraud

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

8 July 1918

William Moore
Mary Skerrett

William Moore
Mary Skerritt
💍 1918/5104

Widower
Widow

Carrier
Nurse

34
38

Oamaru
Oamaru

34 years
3 days

Presbyterian Manse Reed St, Oamaru

4733

8 July 1918

Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

No	16
Date of Notice	8 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Moore	Mary Skerrett
BDM Match (96%)	William Moore	Mary Skerritt
	💍 1918/5104
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Carrier	Nurse
Age	34	38
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	34 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse Reed St, Oamaru
Folio	4733
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

11 July 1918

Louis Edward Lawrance
Lillian Orr

Louis Edward Lawrence
Lilian Orr
💍 1918/5107

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraph Lineman
Clerk

29
26

Oamaru
Oamaru

4 months
26 years

St Paul's Presbyterian Church, Oamaru

4736

11 July 1918

Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

No	17
Date of Notice	11 July 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Edward Lawrance	Lillian Orr
BDM Match (93%)	Louis Edward Lawrence	Lilian Orr
	💍 1918/5107
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraph Lineman	Clerk
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	4 months	26 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Presbyterian Church, Oamaru
Folio	4736
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 July 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter, Presbyterian

3 August 1918

William Kirkwood Maynard
Mary McKone

William Kirkwood Meynard
Mary McKone
💍 1918/5105

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Waitress

22
29

Oamaru
Oamaru

16 years
29 years

Roman Catholic Basilica, Reed St, Oamaru

4734

3 August 1918

Rev. James Foley, Roman Catholic

No	18
Date of Notice	3 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Kirkwood Maynard	Mary McKone
BDM Match (98%)	William Kirkwood Meynard	Mary McKone
	💍 1918/5105
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Waitress
Age	22	29
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	16 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Basilica, Reed St, Oamaru
Folio	4734
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Foley, Roman Catholic

6 August 1918

Carl Ludvig Nielsen
Elizabeth Carlson

Carl Ludvig Neilsen
Elizabeth Carlson
💍 1918/5106

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

33
31

Oamaru
Oamaru

3 days
6 days

St Luke's Anglican Church, Oamaru

4735

6 August 1918

Rev. John Delacourt Russell, Church of England

No	19
Date of Notice	6 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Carl Ludvig Nielsen	Elizabeth Carlson
BDM Match (95%)	Carl Ludvig Neilsen	Elizabeth Carlson
	💍 1918/5106
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	6 days
Marriage Place	St Luke's Anglican Church, Oamaru
Folio	4735
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Delacourt Russell, Church of England

7 August 1918

Claude Andrew Warrilow
Elizabeth Campbell Dunbar

Claude Andrew Warrilow
Elizabeth Campbell Dunbar
💍 1918/5108

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

31
28

Oamaru
Totaratahi

3 days
5 years

Residence of William Dunbar, Totaratahi

4737

7 August 1918

Rev. Alexander Watson, Presbyterian

No	20
Date of Notice	7 August 1918
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Andrew Warrilow	Elizabeth Campbell Dunbar
	💍 1918/5108
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Totaratahi
Length of Residence	3 days	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of William Dunbar, Totaratahi
Folio	4737
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 August 1918
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alexander Watson, Presbyterian

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).