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 1763

District of Masterton Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar J. Miller

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

25 May 1920

Claude Peachey Jarrett
Flora Edith Sarah Ann Burling

Claude Peachey Jarrett
Flora Edith Sarah Ann Burling
💍 1920/1925

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Civil Servant

23
21

Masterton
Masterton

11 years
7 years

St. Matthew's Church, Masterton

5486

25 May 1920

Rev. John Walker, Church of England

No	67
Date of Notice	25 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Peachey Jarrett	Flora Edith Sarah Ann Burling
	💍 1920/1925
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Civil Servant
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	11 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church, Masterton
Folio	5486
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Walker, Church of England

26 May 1920

Joseph Raymond Donovan
Vera King

Joseph Raymond Donovan
Vera King
💍 1920/1926

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Clerk

24
25

Kopuaranga
Lansdowne

15 years
20 years

Lansdowne Presbyterian Church

5487

26 May 1920

Rev. John Thomson Macky, Presbyterian

No	68
Date of Notice	26 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Raymond Donovan	Vera King
	💍 1920/1926
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Clerk
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Kopuaranga	Lansdowne
Length of Residence	15 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Lansdowne Presbyterian Church
Folio	5487
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Thomson Macky, Presbyterian

29 May 1920

George Stanley Manger
Rhoda Kathleen Wilton

George Stanley Mangin
Rhoda Kathleen Wilton
💍 1920/1927

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic Duties

25
28

Rangitumau
Rangitumau

3 days
28 years

Presbyterian Church at Rangitumau

5488

29 May 1920

Rev. G. K. Brown, Presbyterian

No	69
Date of Notice	29 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Stanley Manger	Rhoda Kathleen Wilton
BDM Match (95%)	George Stanley Mangin	Rhoda Kathleen Wilton
	💍 1920/1927
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic Duties
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	Rangitumau	Rangitumau
Length of Residence	3 days	28 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church at Rangitumau
Folio	5488
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Brown, Presbyterian

31 May 1920

Roy Carter
Edith Madge Spicer

Roy Carter
Edith Madge Spicer
💍 1920/1928

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

28
19

Masterton
Masterton

1 year
9 years

St. Matthew's Church at Masterton

5489

Albert Edwin Spicer - father

31 May 1920

Rev. John Walker, Church of England

No	70
Date of Notice	31 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roy Carter	Edith Madge Spicer
	💍 1920/1928
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	1 year	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church at Masterton
Folio	5489
Consent	Albert Edwin Spicer - father
Date of Certificate	31 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Walker, Church of England

8 June 1920

John Gustav Swanson
Catherine Martha Miller

John Gustav Swanson
Catherine Martha Miller
💍 1920/1929

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic
Home Duties

25
29

Masterton
Masterton

19 years
4 months

Residence of Mrs. Swanson, Renall Street, Masterton

5490

8 June 1920

Rev. J. Cocker, Methodist

No	71
Date of Notice	8 June 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Gustav Swanson	Catherine Martha Miller
	💍 1920/1929
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic	Home Duties
Age	25	29
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	19 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Swanson, Renall Street, Masterton
Folio	5490
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Cocker, Methodist

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).