Intentions to Marry, 1923 Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840515, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1923 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.

1923d contains pages 1335-1744, covering districts from Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Page 1388

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar W. Buchanan

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

27 March 1923

Donald McAllister
Doris Clare Warner

Donald McAllister Priest
Doris Clare Warner
💍 1923/2303

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper
Domestic Duties

29
30

Napier
Auckland

1 day
6 months

St. Pauls Church, Napier

1895

27 March 1923

J. A. Asher, Presbyterian

No	46
Date of Notice	27 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald McAllister	Doris Clare Warner
BDM Match (85%)	Donald McAllister Priest	Doris Clare Warner
	💍 1923/2303
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Domestic Duties
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Napier	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 day	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Church, Napier
Folio	1895
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1923
Officiating Minister	J. A. Asher, Presbyterian

27 March 1923

Francis Gerald Howse
Barbara Lindsay Bain

Francis Gerald Howse
Barbara Lindsay Bain
💍 1923/2304

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant
Domestic Duties

30
25

Napier
Napier

30 years
15 months

St. Augustines Church, Napier

1896

27 March 1923

Canon Rice, Church of England

No	47
Date of Notice	27 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Gerald Howse	Barbara Lindsay Bain
	💍 1923/2304
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant	Domestic Duties
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	30 years	15 months
Marriage Place	St. Augustines Church, Napier
Folio	1896
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Canon Rice, Church of England

29 March 1923

Horace Sydney McKee
Hilda Muriel Dennett

Horace Sydney McKee
Hilda Muriel Dennett
💍 1923/2305

Bachelor
Spinster

Confectioner
Domestic

27
17

Port Ahuriri
Petane

27 years
17 years

St. Patricks Church, Napier

1897

Henry Edward Dennett, father

29 March 1923

Father Blaney, Roman Catholic

No	48
Date of Notice	29 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Sydney McKee	Hilda Muriel Dennett
	💍 1923/2305
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Confectioner	Domestic
Age	27	17
Dwelling Place	Port Ahuriri	Petane
Length of Residence	27 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St. Patricks Church, Napier
Folio	1897
Consent	Henry Edward Dennett, father
Date of Certificate	29 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Father Blaney, Roman Catholic

29 March 1923

Duncan Stuart Langlands
Dorothea Cameron Broom

Duncan Stuart Langlands
Dorothea Cameron Broom
💍 1923/2306

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Agent
Domestic Duties

21
23

Napier
Gisborne

7 days
4 years

The Manse, St. Pauls Church, Lincoln Road, Napier

1898

29 March 1923

J. A. Asher, Presbyterian

No	49
Date of Notice	29 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Duncan Stuart Langlands	Dorothea Cameron Broom
	💍 1923/2306
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Agent	Domestic Duties
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Napier	Gisborne
Length of Residence	7 days	4 years
Marriage Place	The Manse, St. Pauls Church, Lincoln Road, Napier
Folio	1898
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 March 1923
Officiating Minister	J. A. Asher, Presbyterian

29 March 1923

Neri Roberts
Catherine Jane Seats

Neri Roberts
Cathrine Jane Sceats
💍 1923/2307

Widower
Divorced (Degree absolute 29 March 1923)

Labourer
Domestic

55
43

Eskdale
Eskdale

7 years
2 years

Registrars Office, Napier

1899

29 March 1923

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	50
Date of Notice	29 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Neri Roberts	Catherine Jane Seats
BDM Match (95%)	Neri Roberts	Cathrine Jane Sceats
	💍 1923/2307
Condition	Widower	Divorced (Degree absolute 29 March 1923)
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	55	43
Dwelling Place	Eskdale	Eskdale
Length of Residence	7 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Napier
Folio	1899
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 March 1923
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

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).