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 1341

District of Hastings Quarter ending 30 June 1921 Registrar Robert 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

2 April 1921

Leonard Morgon Compton
Laura Widdop

Leonard Morgon Compton
Laura Widdop
💍 1921/6458

Bachelor
Spinster

Pastrycook
Domestic Duties

22
22

Hastings
Hastings

22 years
14 years

Baptist Church.

4737

2 April 1921

Rev. H. E. Edridge, Baptist

No	41
Date of Notice	2 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Morgon Compton	Laura Widdop
	💍 1921/6458
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pastrycook	Domestic Duties
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	22 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church.
Folio	4737
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. E. Edridge, Baptist

4 April 1921

William MacWood Leeney
Violet Eleanor Sutton

William Mac Wood Heeney
Violet Eleanor Sutton
💍 1921/6459

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmill Hand
Domestic Duties

31
21

Hastings
Hastings

31 years
3 months

Roman Catholic Church, Hastings

4738

4 April 1921

Rev. Father Mahoney, Roman Catholic

No	42
Date of Notice	4 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William MacWood Leeney	Violet Eleanor Sutton
BDM Match (96%)	William Mac Wood Heeney	Violet Eleanor Sutton
	💍 1921/6459
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmill Hand	Domestic Duties
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	31 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hastings
Folio	4738
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Mahoney, Roman Catholic

5 April 1921

Edmund William Boyd
Catherine McCarthy

Edmund William Boyd
Catherine McCarthy
💍 1921/6460

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

28
25

Hastings
Hastings

18 years
5 years

Roman Catholic Church, Hastings

4739

5 April 1921

Rev. Father Fraher, Roman Catholic

No	43
Date of Notice	5 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmund William Boyd	Catherine McCarthy
	💍 1921/6460
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	18 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hastings
Folio	4739
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Fraher, Roman Catholic

5 April 1921

Herbert Down Floyd
Ani Ramingsen

Herbert Down Floyd
Ani Hemmingsen
💍 1921/6461

Widower 27th November 1917
Widow 25th November 1918

Slaughterman
Domestic Duties

32
30

Paki Paki
Paki Paki

3 years
10 years

Registrar's Office

4740

5 April 1921

Robert Brathwaite, Registrar.

No	44
Date of Notice	5 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Down Floyd	Ani Ramingsen
BDM Match (89%)	Herbert Down Floyd	Ani Hemmingsen
	💍 1921/6461
Condition	Widower 27th November 1917	Widow 25th November 1918
Profession	Slaughterman	Domestic Duties
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Paki Paki	Paki Paki
Length of Residence	3 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	4740
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Robert Brathwaite, Registrar.

11 April 1921

David Ems Hird
Inez Dorothy Ramsay

David Elms Hird
Inez Dorothy Ramsay
💍 1921/6462

Bachelor
Spinster

Draughtsman Clerk

31
26

Hastings
Hastings

2 years

St. Matthew's Church, Hastings

4741

11 April 1921

Rev. R. J. Hall, Anglican

No	45
Date of Notice	11 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Ems Hird	Inez Dorothy Ramsay
BDM Match (97%)	David Elms Hird	Inez Dorothy Ramsay
	💍 1921/6462
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draughtsman Clerk
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church, Hastings
Folio	4741
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. J. 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).