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 1397

District of Hastings Quarter ending 30 September 1925 Registrar Robert Brathwaite

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

24 July 1925

Kenneth Riwai Starnes
May Mary Davis

Kenneth Riwai Starnes
May Mary Davis
💍 1925/6898

Bachelor
Widow

Farm Labourer
Domestic duties

22
24

Havelock North
Hastings

3 years
4 months

Registrar's Office Hastings

6897

27 July 1925

Robert Brathwaite, Registrar

No	93
Date of Notice	24 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Riwai Starnes	May Mary Davis
	💍 1925/6898
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Farm Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Havelock North	Hastings
Length of Residence	3 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Hastings
Folio	6897
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Robert Brathwaite, Registrar

27 July 1925

Stanley Bowman Thompson
Loretta Catherine Harriett Taylor

Stanley Bowman Thompson
Loretta Catherine Harriett Naylor
💍 1925/6899

Bachelor
Divorced (decree absolute 10 December 1924)

Slaughterman
Housekeeper

28
36

Hastings
Hastings

8 months
6 months

Registrar's Office Hastings

6898

27 July 1925

Robert Brathwaite, Registrar

No	94
Date of Notice	27 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Bowman Thompson	Loretta Catherine Harriett Taylor
BDM Match (99%)	Stanley Bowman Thompson	Loretta Catherine Harriett Naylor
	💍 1925/6899
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (decree absolute 10 December 1924)
Profession	Slaughterman	Housekeeper
Age	28	36
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	8 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Hastings
Folio	6898
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Robert Brathwaite, Registrar

29 July 1925

Frederick Walter Franklin
Adeline Daphne Hearn

Frederick Walter Franklin
Adeline Daphne Hearn
💍 1925/6900

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Waitress

20
18

Hastings
Hastings

12 years
2 years

Registrar's Office Hastings

6899

Walter Franklin, Father; H. Hearn, Father

29 July 1925

Robert Brathwaite, Registrar

No	95
Date of Notice	29 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Walter Franklin	Adeline Daphne Hearn
	💍 1925/6900
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Waitress
Age	20	18
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	12 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Hastings
Folio	6899
Consent	Walter Franklin, Father; H. Hearn, Father
Date of Certificate	29 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Robert Brathwaite, Registrar

3 August 1925

Leslie Alexander Miller
Kathleen Louisa Baldwin

Leslie Alexander Miller
Kathleen Louisa Baldwin
💍 1925/6901

Bachelor
Spinster

Produce Streman
Domestic

24
23

Hastings
Hastings

12 years
10 months

Anglican Church Hastings

6900

3 August 1925

Rev. J. B. Draper, Anglican

No	96
Date of Notice	3 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Alexander Miller	Kathleen Louisa Baldwin
	💍 1925/6901
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Produce Streman	Domestic
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	12 years	10 months
Marriage Place	Anglican Church Hastings
Folio	6900
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Draper, Anglican

5 August 1925

Arthur Nightingale
Rosamond Eunice Mary Richards

Arthur Nightingale
Rosamund Eunice Mary Richards
💍 1925/6909

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

21
20

Hastings
Hastings

4 years
20 years

Catholic Presbytery Hastings

6901

Eunice Lizzie Colher Richards, Mother

5 August 1925

Rev. Father Goggan, Roman Catholic

No	97
Date of Notice	5 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Nightingale	Rosamond Eunice Mary Richards
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur Nightingale	Rosamund Eunice Mary Richards
	💍 1925/6909
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	4 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Presbytery Hastings
Folio	6901
Consent	Eunice Lizzie Colher Richards, Mother
Date of Certificate	5 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Goggan, Roman Catholic

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).