Intentions to Marry, 1925 Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840531, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1925 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.

1925d contains pages 1357-1784, covering districts from Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Page 1385

District of Hastings Quarter ending 30 June 1925 Registrar R. B. Ashworth

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

1 April 1925

Reginald Henry Edridge
Alice Mary Lock

Reginald Henry Edridge
Alice Mary Lock
💍 1925/4605

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer/Secretary
Music Teacher

28
34

Hastings
Havelock North

10 years
5 years

Baptist Church, Hastings

4410

1 April 1925

Rev. Keith Ewan, Baptist

No	37
Date of Notice	1 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Henry Edridge	Alice Mary Lock
	💍 1925/4605
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer/Secretary	Music Teacher
Age	28	34
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Havelock North
Length of Residence	10 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Hastings
Folio	4410
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 April 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. Keith Ewan, Baptist

2 April 1925

Arthur George Cleghorn
May Kirk

Arthur George Cleghorn
May Kirk
💍 1925/4606

Divorced (decree absolute 12 February 1920)
Divorced

Freezer
Domestic duties

41
34

Whakatu
Hastings

1 year
3 years

Presbyterian Church, Hastings

4411

2 April 1925

Rev. P. Ramsay, Presbyterian

No	38
Date of Notice	2 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur George Cleghorn	May Kirk
	💍 1925/4606
Condition	Divorced (decree absolute 12 February 1920)	Divorced
Profession	Freezer	Domestic duties
Age	41	34
Dwelling Place	Whakatu	Hastings
Length of Residence	1 year	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Hastings
Folio	4411
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Ramsay, Presbyterian

2 April 1925

Nathan Welham
Olive Agnes Ewins

Nathan Welham
Olive Agnes Ewins
💍 1925/4607

Bachelor
Spinster

Woolclasser
Domestic duties

34
29

Whakatu
Hastings

6 years
1 week

St. Matthews Church, Hastings

4412

3 April 1925

Rev. J. E. Draper, Anglican

No	39
Date of Notice	2 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nathan Welham	Olive Agnes Ewins
	💍 1925/4607
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Woolclasser	Domestic duties
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Whakatu	Hastings
Length of Residence	6 years	1 week
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Hastings
Folio	4412
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. E. Draper, Anglican

3 April 1925

Victor Gordon Badley
Elizabeth Rose Callaghan

Victor Gordon Badley
Elizabeth Rose Callaghan
💍 1925/4608

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman
Domestic duties

28
25

Greenmeadows
Hastings

20 years
15 months

St. Matthews Church, Hastings

4413

3 April 1925

Rev. J. E. Draper, Anglican

No	40
Date of Notice	3 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Victor Gordon Badley	Elizabeth Rose Callaghan
	💍 1925/4608
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman	Domestic duties
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Greenmeadows	Hastings
Length of Residence	20 years	15 months
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Hastings
Folio	4413
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. E. Draper, Anglican

4 April 1925

Guy Clarence Field
Dorothy Millie Powdrell

Guy Clarence Field
Dorothy Millie Powdrell
💍 1925/4609

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep farmer
Domestic duties

23
20

Waimarama
Hastings

15 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church, Hastings

4414

Frank Ernest Powdrell, father

4 April 1925

Rev. P. Ramsay, Presbyterian

No	41
Date of Notice	4 April 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Guy Clarence Field	Dorothy Millie Powdrell
	💍 1925/4609
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep farmer	Domestic duties
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Waimarama	Hastings
Length of Residence	15 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Hastings
Folio	4414
Consent	Frank Ernest Powdrell, father
Date of Certificate	4 April 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Ramsay, Presbyterian

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).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).