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 1441

District of Waipawa Quarter ending 31 March 1921 Registrar ACW Murdoch

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

5 January 1921

Lars Larsen
Ruby Annie Beatrice Arrow

Lars Larsen
Ruby Annie Beatrice Arrow
💍 1921/9437

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

44
35

Waipawa
Waipawa

4 days
35 years

Church of England, Waipawa

2072

5 January 1921

A B Malcolm, Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	5 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lars Larsen	Ruby Annie Beatrice Arrow
	💍 1921/9437
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	44	35
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	4 days	35 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Waipawa
Folio	2072
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1921
Officiating Minister	A B Malcolm, Church of England

6 January 1921

Percival Charles Taylor
Florence Catherine Luckie Attenborough

Percival Charles Taylor
Florence Catherine Luke Attenborrow
💍 1921/9438

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman
Clerk

32
22

Waipawa
Waipawa

4 days
4 days

Residence of Rev. F W Robertson at Waipawa

2073

6 January 1921

Rev Robertson, Presbyterian

No	2
Date of Notice	6 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival Charles Taylor	Florence Catherine Luckie Attenborough
BDM Match (92%)	Percival Charles Taylor	Florence Catherine Luke Attenborrow
	💍 1921/9438
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman	Clerk
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. F W Robertson at Waipawa
Folio	2073
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev Robertson, Presbyterian

10 January 1921

John Alexander Greer
Isabella Angus

John Alexander Greer
Isabella Angus
💍 1921/9439

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

42
32

Waipawa
Waipawa

4 days
6 weeks

Presbyterian Church at Waipawa

2074

10 January 1921

Rev Robertson, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	10 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alexander Greer	Isabella Angus
	💍 1921/9439
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	42	32
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	4 days	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church at Waipawa
Folio	2074
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev Robertson, Presbyterian

14 February 1921

Keith William Drower
Clarice Herbeena Ireland

Keith William Drower
Clarice Herbeena Ireland
💍 1921/9440

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

26
27

Waipawa
Te Kuiti

Three days
[illegible]

Church of England

2075

14 February 1921

M W Butterfield, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	14 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Keith William Drower	Clarice Herbeena Ireland
	💍 1921/9440
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Te Kuiti
Length of Residence	Three days	[illegible]
Marriage Place	Church of England
Folio	2075
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1921
Officiating Minister	M W Butterfield, Church of England

24 February 1921

Godfrey Grey Cooper Gillespie
Edith May Leach

Godfrey Grey Cooper Gillespie
Edith May Leach
💍 1921/10841

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

29
23

Onga Onga
Onga Onga

Nine years
Six years

[illegible]

2076

William Leach (near Onga Onga)

24 February 1921

M W Butterfield, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	24 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Godfrey Grey Cooper Gillespie	Edith May Leach
	💍 1921/10841
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Onga Onga	Onga Onga
Length of Residence	Nine years	Six years
Marriage Place	[illegible]
Folio	2076
Consent	William Leach (near Onga Onga)
Date of Certificate	24 February 1921
Officiating Minister	M W Butterfield, Church of England

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).