Intentions to Marry, 1921 Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840499, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1921 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.

1921d contains pages 1317-1734, covering districts from Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Page 1339

District of Hastings Quarter ending 31 March 1921 Registrar R B Braithwaite

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

16 March 1921

Edwin Arthur Morley
Eileen Frances Morley

Edwin Arthur Murley
Eileen Frances Murfitt
💍 1921/9376

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic Duties

24
22

Hastings
Hastings

15 years
22 years

St. Andrew's Church

2012

16 March 1921

Rev P Ramsay, Presbyterian

No	31
Date of Notice	16 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Arthur Morley	Eileen Frances Morley
BDM Match (86%)	Edwin Arthur Murley	Eileen Frances Murfitt
	💍 1921/9376
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	15 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Church
Folio	2012
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev P Ramsay, Presbyterian

22 March 1921

George Bollard Powell
Alice Price

George Bolland Powell
Alice Price
💍 1921/9377

Bachelor
Spinster

Garage Proprietor, Motor Mechanic
Nurse

24
26

Hastings
Hastings

3 days
3 days

St. Andrew's Church, Hastings

2013

22 March 1921

Rev P Ramsay, Presbyterian

No	32
Date of Notice	22 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Bollard Powell	Alice Price
BDM Match (98%)	George Bolland Powell	Alice Price
	💍 1921/9377
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Garage Proprietor, Motor Mechanic	Nurse
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Church, Hastings
Folio	2013
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev P Ramsay, Presbyterian

24 March 1921

Lewis Herbert Scott
Fanny Price

Lewis Herbert Scott
Fanny Price
💍 1921/9378

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
School Teacher

27
24

Hastings
Hastings

3 days
4 years

Wesleyan Church, Hastings

2014

24 March 1921

Rev A McBean, Methodist

No	33
Date of Notice	24 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lewis Herbert Scott	Fanny Price
	💍 1921/9378
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	School Teacher
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	3 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Hastings
Folio	2014
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev A McBean, Methodist

24 March 1921

James Bosgrove Donnelly
Margaret Josephina Donnelly

James Cosgrove
Margaret Josephine Donnelly
💍 1921/9379

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller
Domestic Duties

24
24

Hastings
Hastings

15 years
24 years

Sacred Heart Church

2015

24 March 1921

Rev G Mahoney, Catholic

No	34
Date of Notice	24 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Bosgrove Donnelly	Margaret Josephina Donnelly
BDM Match (76%)	James Cosgrove	Margaret Josephine Donnelly
	💍 1921/9379
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller	Domestic Duties
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	15 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Church
Folio	2015
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev G Mahoney, Catholic

24 March 1921

Robert Francis Lloyd Mitchell
Olive May Mitchell

Robert Francis Lloyd
Olive May Mitchell
💍 1921/9380

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach Painter
Domestic Duties

28
27

Hastings
Tomoana, Hastings

1 week
3 weeks

St. Matthew's Church, Hastings

2016

24 March 1921

Rev R Y Hall, Anglican

No	35
Date of Notice	24 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Francis Lloyd Mitchell	Olive May Mitchell
BDM Match (85%)	Robert Francis Lloyd	Olive May Mitchell
	💍 1921/9380
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach Painter	Domestic Duties
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Tomoana, Hastings
Length of Residence	1 week	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church, Hastings
Folio	2016
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev R Y Hall, Anglican

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).