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 1417

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1925 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

26 January 1925

Clarence Vincent Cooper
Eva Bulshaw

Clarence Vincent Cooper
Eva Culshaw
💍 1925/1307

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Hand
Domestic Duties

25
19

Napier
Napier

18 months
1 year

St. Hardy Home, Napier

1885

Caroline Bulshaw, mother

26 January 1925

W. J. Simkin, Church of England

No	21
Date of Notice	26 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Vincent Cooper	Eva Bulshaw
BDM Match (95%)	Clarence Vincent Cooper	Eva Culshaw
	💍 1925/1307
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Hand	Domestic Duties
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	18 months	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Hardy Home, Napier
Folio	1885
Consent	Caroline Bulshaw, mother
Date of Certificate	26 January 1925
Officiating Minister	W. J. Simkin, Church of England

26 January 1925

Thomas Ferth
Joan Pickering

Thomas Firth
Joan Pickering
💍 1925/1308

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Domestic Duties

31
22

Puketitiri
Puketitiri

1 year
4 years

St. Luke's Church, Havelock North

1886

26 January 1925

K. L. Maclean, Church of England

No	22
Date of Notice	26 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Ferth	Joan Pickering
BDM Match (96%)	Thomas Firth	Joan Pickering
	💍 1925/1308
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Domestic Duties
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Puketitiri	Puketitiri
Length of Residence	1 year	4 years
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Church, Havelock North
Folio	1886
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1925
Officiating Minister	K. L. Maclean, Church of England

27 January 1925

Harrismith Hindmarsh
Marion Irene Hunt

Harrismith Hindmarsh
Marion Irene Hunt
💍 1925/1309

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic Duties

24
26

Napier
Napier

24 years
1 year

St. John's Cathedral, Napier

1887

27 January 1925

F. Mayne, Church of England

No	23
Date of Notice	27 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harrismith Hindmarsh	Marion Irene Hunt
	💍 1925/1309
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic Duties
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	24 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St. John's Cathedral, Napier
Folio	1887
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1925
Officiating Minister	F. Mayne, Church of England

24 January 1925

Arthur Corbett
Maggie Finlayson

Arthur Corbett
Maggie Finlayson
💍 1925/1286

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Housemaid

26
29

Eskdale
Bay View

8 years
26 years

Registrar's Office, Napier

1888

24 January 1925

W. Buchanan, Registrar

No	24
Date of Notice	24 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Corbett	Maggie Finlayson
	💍 1925/1286
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Housemaid
Age	26	29
Dwelling Place	Eskdale	Bay View
Length of Residence	8 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Napier
Folio	1888
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1925
Officiating Minister	W. Buchanan, Registrar

6 February 1925

William Henry Bone
Elsie Lena Suff

William Henry Bone
Elsie Lena Suff
💍 1925/1287

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk
Milliner

21
19

Feilding
Napier

2 years
6 weeks

St. Augustine's Church, Napier

1889

Parents dead, no one to consent under Section 27

20 February 1925

H. H. Klingender, Church of England

No	25
Date of Notice	6 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Bone	Elsie Lena Suff
	💍 1925/1287
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk	Milliner
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Feilding	Napier
Length of Residence	2 years	6 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church, Napier
Folio	1889
Consent	Parents dead, no one to consent under Section 27
Date of Certificate	20 February 1925
Officiating Minister	H. H. Klingender, Church of England

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).