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 1744

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 31 December 1924 Registrar E. C. Wood

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

154

10 October 1924

Wallace Royal Gooding
Alma Josephine Birchley

Wallace Royal Gooding
Alma Josephine Birchley
💍 1924/7336

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist's Assistant
Chemist's Assistant

27
31

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 years
25 years

All Saints Church

9683

10 October 1924

Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

No	154
Date of Notice	10 October 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wallace Royal Gooding	Alma Josephine Birchley
	💍 1924/7336
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist's Assistant	Chemist's Assistant
Age	27	31
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 years	25 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church
Folio	9683
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican

155

10 October 1924

Johannes Lauridsen
Gertrude Ethel Simms

Johannes Lauridsen
Gertrude Ethel Simms
💍 1924/7337

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

31
34

Linton
Cheltenham

15 years
3 months

Lutheran Church, Palmerston North

9684

10 October 1924

Rev. M. Christensen, Lutheran

No	155
Date of Notice	10 October 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Johannes Lauridsen	Gertrude Ethel Simms
	💍 1924/7337
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	31	34
Dwelling Place	Linton	Cheltenham
Length of Residence	15 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Lutheran Church, Palmerston North
Folio	9684
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Christensen, Lutheran

156

13 October 1924

Norman Alfred Vile
Violet Frances Catherine Ward

Norman Alfred Vile
Violet Florence Catherine Ward
💍 1924/7338

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

28
24

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

8 years
Life

St Peters Church, Palmerston North

9685

13 October 1924

Rev. J. C. Abbott, Anglican

No	156
Date of Notice	13 October 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Alfred Vile	Violet Frances Catherine Ward
BDM Match (93%)	Norman Alfred Vile	Violet Florence Catherine Ward
	💍 1924/7338
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	8 years	Life
Marriage Place	St Peters Church, Palmerston North
Folio	9685
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. Abbott, Anglican

157

15 October 1924

Melville Clifton Brookes
Lorna Margaret Coster

Melville Clifton Brookes
Lorna Margaret Coster
💍 1924/7316

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Driver

30
19

Palmerston North
Eketahuna

6 days
Life

Cuba Street Methodist Church, Palmerston North

9686

John George Coster, Father

15 October 1924

Rev. W. J. Peat, Methodist

No	157
Date of Notice	15 October 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Melville Clifton Brookes	Lorna Margaret Coster
	💍 1924/7316
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Driver
Age	30	19
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Eketahuna
Length of Residence	6 days	Life
Marriage Place	Cuba Street Methodist Church, Palmerston North
Folio	9686
Consent	John George Coster, Father
Date of Certificate	15 October 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Peat, Methodist

158

16 October 1924

Stanley Luckham Hart
Sylvia Olive Mai

Stanley Luckham Hart
Sylvia Olive Mai
💍 1924/7317

Bachelor
Spinster

Surfaceman Railway

24
27

Otaki
Palmerston North

1 week
3 days

Gospel Hall, Main Street, Palmerston North

9687

16 October 1924

Mr. Thomas Rowe, Christians Commonly Known as Brethren

No	158
Date of Notice	16 October 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Luckham Hart	Sylvia Olive Mai
	💍 1924/7317
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surfaceman Railway
Age	24	27
Dwelling Place	Otaki	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	1 week	3 days
Marriage Place	Gospel Hall, Main Street, Palmerston North
Folio	9687
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 October 1924
Officiating Minister	Mr. Thomas Rowe, Christians Commonly Known as Brethren

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).