Intentions to Marry, 1920 Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840491, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1920 is bound in eight volumes (a to h) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1920d contains pages 1399-1884, covering districts from Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Page 1451

District of Hastings Quarter ending 31 December 1920 Registrar R. Brathwaite

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

141

4 November 1920

Clarence Reginald Bayley
Ivy Matilda Powdrell

Clarence Reginald Bayly
Ivy Matilda Powdrell
💍 1920/11867

Widower
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

38
31

Hastings
Hastings

10 years
31 years

St. Matthews Church, Hastings

11167

4 November 1920

Rev. R. T. Hall, Anglican

No	141
Date of Notice	4 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Reginald Bayley	Ivy Matilda Powdrell
BDM Match (98%)	Clarence Reginald Bayly	Ivy Matilda Powdrell
	💍 1920/11867
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	38	31
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	10 years	31 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Hastings
Folio	11167
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. T. Hall, Anglican

142

4 November 1920

Corbet Thomas Miles
Ruby Nellie Lake

Corbet Thomas Miles
Ruby Nellie Lake
💍 1920/12324

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

40
23

Hastings
Hastings

10 months
23 years

St. Lukes Church, Havelock North

11168

4 November 1920

Rev. Canon Lush, Anglican

No	142
Date of Notice	4 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Corbet Thomas Miles	Ruby Nellie Lake
	💍 1920/12324
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	40	23
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	10 months	23 years
Marriage Place	St. Lukes Church, Havelock North
Folio	11168
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Canon Lush, Anglican

143

5 November 1920

Frank Hilton Bastin
Florence Queenie Church

Frank Hilton Bastin
Florence Queenie Church
💍 1920/11868

Bachelor
Spinster

County Overseer
Domestic duties

22
22

Hastings
Hastings

7 days
10 years

St. Matthews Church, Hastings

11169

5 November 1920

Rev. R. T. Hall, Anglican

No	143
Date of Notice	5 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Hilton Bastin	Florence Queenie Church
	💍 1920/11868
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	County Overseer	Domestic duties
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	7 days	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Hastings
Folio	11169
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. T. Hall, Anglican

144

8 November 1920

Joseph William Wedd
Ethel May Bisset

Joseph William Wedd
Ethel May Bisset
💍 1920/12057

Bachelor
Spinster

Stock Auctioneer
Domestic duties

27
28

Hastings
Pahiatua

27 years
28 years

St. Pauls Presbyterian Church, Pahiatua

11383

8 November 1920

Rev. R. Welsh, Presbyterian

No	144
Date of Notice	8 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph William Wedd	Ethel May Bisset
	💍 1920/12057
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stock Auctioneer	Domestic duties
Age	27	28
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Pahiatua
Length of Residence	27 years	28 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Presbyterian Church, Pahiatua
Folio	11383
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Welsh, Presbyterian

145

11 November 1920

Robert Gibson
Florence Matilda Mercer

Robert Gibson
Florence Matilda Mercer
💍 1920/12031

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk
Domestic duties

26
19

Hastings
Napier

17 months
2 1/2 years

Residence of Mrs Mercer, Vigor Brown St., Napier

11211

Frederick Mercer (father)

11 November 1920

Rev. G. Menzies, Baptist

No	145
Date of Notice	11 November 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Gibson	Florence Matilda Mercer
	💍 1920/12031
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk	Domestic duties
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Napier
Length of Residence	17 months	2 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Mercer, Vigor Brown St., Napier
Folio	11211
Consent	Frederick Mercer (father)
Date of Certificate	11 November 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Menzies, Baptist

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).