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 1589

District of Woodville Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar J. O'Gorman

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

7 January 1920

Frank Robertson
Agnes Scorgie

Frank Robertson
Agnes Scorgie
💍 1920/4863

Widower
Widow

Railway Guard
Bookseller

33
39

Woodville
Woodville

3 days
33 years

Church of England Woodville

1487

7 January 1920

Rev. A. F. Hall, Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	7 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Robertson	Agnes Scorgie
	💍 1920/4863
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Railway Guard	Bookseller
Age	33	39
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	3 days	33 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Woodville
Folio	1487
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. F. Hall, Church of England

7 January 1920

Herbert Pedersen
Alice Dobbyn

Herbert Pedersen
Alice Dobbyn
💍 1920/4864

Bachelor
Spinster

Porter New Zealand Railways
Tailoress

30
30

Woodville
Woodville

3 days
30 years

Roman Catholic Church Woodville

1488

7 January 1920

Rev. T. McKenna, Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	7 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Pedersen	Alice Dobbyn
	💍 1920/4864
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Porter New Zealand Railways	Tailoress
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	3 days	30 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Woodville
Folio	1488
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. McKenna, Roman Catholic

3 February 1920

George Vaughan Thomas
Ada Marion Harding

George Vaughan Thomas
Ada Marion Harding
💍 1920/4865

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dressmaker

31
27

Woodville
Woodville

4 days
12 months

Methodist Church Woodville

1489

3 February 1920

Rev. R. P. Keall, Methodist

No	3
Date of Notice	3 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Vaughan Thomas	Ada Marion Harding
	💍 1920/4865
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	4 days	12 months
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Woodville
Folio	1489
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. P. Keall, Methodist

6 February 1920

Frederick William Coombes
Jean Innes

Frederick William Coombs
Jean Innes
💍 1920/4866

Bachelor
Spinster

Broker and Commission Agent
Domestic duties

26
17

Woodville
Palmerston North

3 days
17 years

Registrar's Office Woodville

1490

James Petrie Innes, Father

6 February 1920

J. O'Gorman, The Registrar Woodville

No	4
Date of Notice	6 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Coombes	Jean Innes
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick William Coombs	Jean Innes
	💍 1920/4866
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Broker and Commission Agent	Domestic duties
Age	26	17
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 days	17 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Woodville
Folio	1490
Consent	James Petrie Innes, Father
Date of Certificate	6 February 1920
Officiating Minister	J. O'Gorman, The Registrar Woodville

21 February 1920

James Lawson Wilkinson
Eva Beatrice Wilkins

James Clawson Wilkinson
Eva Beatrice Wilkins
💍 1920/4867

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dressmaker

26
21

Woodville
Woodville

3 months
3 days

Registrar's office Woodville

1491

21 February 1920

J. O'Gorman, Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	21 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Lawson Wilkinson	Eva Beatrice Wilkins
BDM Match (96%)	James Clawson Wilkinson	Eva Beatrice Wilkins
	💍 1920/4867
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	3 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's office Woodville
Folio	1491
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1920
Officiating Minister	J. O'Gorman, Registrar

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).