Intentions to Marry, 1924 Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840523, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1924 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.

1924d contains pages 1335-1758, covering districts from Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Page 1479

District of Waipawa Quarter ending 30 September 1924 Registrar J. Thorne

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

11 July 1924

Edward Bernard Goddard
Rushine Ewendoline Beard

Edward Bernard Goddard
Ruahine Gwendoline Beard
💍 1924/5334

Bachelor
Spinster

Survey Chainman
Household duties

23
19

Otane
Otane

2 weeks
2 weeks

Church of England, Otane

7057

Hugh Beard, father

11 July 1924

Rev. G. W. Davidson, Anglican

No	13
Date of Notice	11 July 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Bernard Goddard	Rushine Ewendoline Beard
BDM Match (96%)	Edward Bernard Goddard	Ruahine Gwendoline Beard
	💍 1924/5334
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Survey Chainman	Household duties
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Otane	Otane
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Church of England, Otane
Folio	7057
Consent	Hugh Beard, father
Date of Certificate	11 July 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Davidson, Anglican

18 August 1924

Harold Edmund Carter
Violet Maud Hartwell

Harold Edmund Carter
Violet Maud Hartwell
💍 1924/5335

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm-hand
Shoe operative

21
22

Otane
Otane

2 years 3 months
3 months

Anglican Church, Otane

7058

18 August 1924

Rev. G. W. Davidson, Anglican

No	14
Date of Notice	18 August 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Edmund Carter	Violet Maud Hartwell
	💍 1924/5335
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm-hand	Shoe operative
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Otane	Otane
Length of Residence	2 years 3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Otane
Folio	7058
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 August 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Davidson, Anglican

22 August 1924

John Thomas Turfrey
Ambrosine Victoria Harper

John Thomas Turfrey
Ambrosine Victoria Harper
💍 1924/5318

Widower (Date of decease former wife 23/12/1923)
Spinster

Farmer
House-keeper

42
27

Ngaongao
Ngaongao

4 years
10 years

Methodist Church, Waipawa

7059

22 August 1924

F. J. Parker, Methodist

No	15
Date of Notice	22 August 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Thomas Turfrey	Ambrosine Victoria Harper
	💍 1924/5318
Condition	Widower (Date of decease former wife 23/12/1923)	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	House-keeper
Age	42	27
Dwelling Place	Ngaongao	Ngaongao
Length of Residence	4 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Waipawa
Folio	7059
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 August 1924
Officiating Minister	F. J. Parker, Methodist

25 August 1924

Frederick Samuel Jones
Emily Maria Turfrey

Frederick Samuel Jones
Emily Maria Turfrey
💍 1924/5881

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway employee
Domestic duties

21
25

Waipawa
Waipawa

5 years
3 years

St. Peter's Anglican Church, Waipawa

7736

25 August 1924

M. W. Butterfield, Anglican

No	16
Date of Notice	25 August 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Samuel Jones	Emily Maria Turfrey
	💍 1924/5881
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway employee	Domestic duties
Age	21	25
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	5 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Anglican Church, Waipawa
Folio	7736
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 August 1924
Officiating Minister	M. W. Butterfield, Anglican

2 September 1924

Bertrand Verran
Mabel Fowler

Bertrand Verran
Mabel Fowler
💍 1924/5319

Bachelor
Spinster

Tablet Porter
Domestic duties

23
27

Waipawa
Waipawa

10 years
10 years

Registrar of Marriages Office, Waipawa

7060

2 September 1924

J. Thorne, Registrar

No	17
Date of Notice	2 September 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bertrand Verran	Mabel Fowler
	💍 1924/5319
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tablet Porter	Domestic duties
Age	23	27
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	10 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar of Marriages Office, Waipawa
Folio	7060
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 September 1924
Officiating Minister	J. Thorne, Registrar

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).