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 1501

District of Waipawa Quarter ending 30 September 1925 Registrar John Ross

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

6 July 1925

Alfred Lory
Isabella Elizabeth Reid

Alfred Lory
Isabella Elizabeth Reid
💍 1925/6966

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

22
19

Otane
Otane

22 years
4 years

Presbyterian Church, Waipawa

6966

Louis/Lorne Reid, Father

6 July 1925

Rev. F. W. Robertson

No	10
Date of Notice	6 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Lory	Isabella Elizabeth Reid
	💍 1925/6966
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Otane	Otane
Length of Residence	22 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Waipawa
Folio	6966
Consent	Louis/Lorne Reid, Father
Date of Certificate	6 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. W. Robertson

5 August 1925

Robert William Mackie
Eva Catherine Simmons

Robert William MacKie
Eva Catherine Simmons
💍 1925/6967

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic

23
22

Waipawa
Waipawa

23 years
22 years

Private house of [illegible] Avison, Waipawa

6967

5 August 1925

Rev. F. W. Robertson

No	11
Date of Notice	5 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert William Mackie	Eva Catherine Simmons
BDM Match (98%)	Robert William MacKie	Eva Catherine Simmons
	💍 1925/6967
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	23 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Private house of [illegible] Avison, Waipawa
Folio	6967
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. W. Robertson

7 August 1925

Horace Washington Jones
Eva Helen Hickey

Horace Washington Jones
Eva Helen Hickey
💍 1925/6968

Bachelor
Spinster

Advertising window dresser & specialist
Nurse

25
28

Wellington
Otane

4 years
25 years

Anglican Church, Wellington

6968

7 August 1925

Rev. J. B. Brocklehurst

No	12
Date of Notice	7 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Washington Jones	Eva Helen Hickey
	💍 1925/6968
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Advertising window dresser & specialist	Nurse
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Otane
Length of Residence	4 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Wellington
Folio	6968
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Brocklehurst

11 August 1925

Clifford Norman Whyman
Evelyn Turner

Clifford Norman Whyman
Evelyn Turner
💍 1925/7677

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

34
28

Waipawa
Waipawa

34 years
23 years

Church of England, Waipawa

7682

11 August 1925

Rev. M. W. Butterfield

No	13
Date of Notice	11 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clifford Norman Whyman	Evelyn Turner
	💍 1925/7677
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	34	28
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	34 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Waipawa
Folio	7682
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. W. Butterfield

18 August 1925

William Carson
Grace Felibia Wedd

William Carson
Grace Letitia Wedd
💍 1925/6969

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Saleswoman

32
32

Waipawa
Otane

32 years
32 years

Presbyterian Church, Otane

6969

18 August 1925

Rev. F. W. Robertson

No	14
Date of Notice	18 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Carson	Grace Felibia Wedd
BDM Match (92%)	William Carson	Grace Letitia Wedd
	💍 1925/6969
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Saleswoman
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Otane
Length of Residence	32 years	32 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Otane
Folio	6969
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. W. Robertson

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).