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 1681

District of Pahiatua Quarter ending 30 September 1921 Registrar D. J. Monthe

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

22 July 1921

Francis Ridder
Ruby Gertrude Stone

Francis Ridder
Ruby Gertrude Stone
💍 1921/4264

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic Duties

28
22

Konini
Konini

4 years
6 months

St. James Church

7483

22 July 1921

Rev. H. R. Monahan, Church of England

No	21
Date of Notice	22 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Ridder	Ruby Gertrude Stone
	💍 1921/4264
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic Duties
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Konini	Konini
Length of Residence	4 years	6 months
Marriage Place	St. James Church
Folio	7483
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. R. Monahan, Church of England

1 August 1921

Joseph Leonard Oswald Udy
Frances Edith Hyde

Joseph Leonard Oswald Udy
Frances Edith Gyde
💍 1921/4241

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Domestic Spinster

26
20

Pahiatua
Pahiatua

7 days

Church of England

7484

3 August 1921

Rev. H. R. Monahan, Church of England

No	22
Date of Notice	1 August 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Leonard Oswald Udy	Frances Edith Hyde
BDM Match (97%)	Joseph Leonard Oswald Udy	Frances Edith Gyde
	💍 1921/4241
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic Spinster
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Pahiatua	Pahiatua
Length of Residence		7 days
Marriage Place	Church of England
Folio	7484
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 August 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. R. Monahan, Church of England

3 August 1921

Leslie Robertson Wards
Mona Beatrice Lawson

Leslie Robertson Wards
Mona Beatrice Lawson
💍 1921/4242

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairy Factory Manager
Domestic Duties

Dannevirke
Dannevirke

20 years
21 years

St. Peter's Church

7485

Rev. H. R. Monahan, Church of England

No	23
Date of Notice	3 August 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Robertson Wards	Mona Beatrice Lawson
	💍 1921/4242
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairy Factory Manager	Domestic Duties
Age		21
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Dannevirke
Length of Residence	20 years	21 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church
Folio	7485
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. R. Monahan, Church of England

15 August 1921

Louis Gardner
Valerie Irene Willis

Louis Gardner
Elsie Irene Willis
💍 1921/4243

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

39
28

Nikau
Hamua

30 years
23 years

Methodist Church

7486

15 August 1921

Rev. A. Standing, Methodist

No	24
Date of Notice	15 August 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Gardner	Valerie Irene Willis
BDM Match (90%)	Louis Gardner	Elsie Irene Willis
	💍 1921/4243
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	39	28
Dwelling Place	Nikau	Hamua
Length of Residence	30 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church
Folio	7486
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 August 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Standing, Methodist

16 August 1921

Edward Brady
Alice Myrtle Parker

Edward Brady
Alice Myrtle Parker
💍 1921/4244

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Engineer
Domestic Duties

34
25

Pahiatua
Pahiatua

6 years
25 years

Presbyterian Church

7487

16 August 1921

Rev. R. Gorrie, Presbyterian

No	25
Date of Notice	16 August 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Brady	Alice Myrtle Parker
	💍 1921/4244
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Engineer	Domestic Duties
Age	34	25
Dwelling Place	Pahiatua	Pahiatua
Length of Residence	6 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church
Folio	7487
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 August 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Gorrie, Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).