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 1505

District of Waipukurau Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar A. O. Rice

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 January 1925

John Lloyd Lunt
Ethel May Smith

John Lloyd Lunt
Ethel May Smith
💍 1925/1315

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Dressmaker

42
25

Waipukurau
Waipukurau

4 years
25 years

Presbyterian Church, Waipukurau

1917

6 January 1925

R. F. Fish, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	6 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Lloyd Lunt	Ethel May Smith
	💍 1925/1315
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Dressmaker
Age	42	25
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	4 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Waipukurau
Folio	1917
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1925
Officiating Minister	R. F. Fish, Presbyterian

22 January 1925

Eric Stanley Elliott
Dolina Isabella Johnston

Eric Stanley Elliott
Dolina Isabella Johnston
💍 1925/1316

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dressmaker

23
21

Waipukurau
Waipukurau

23 years
9 years

Presbyterian Church, Waipukurau

1918

22 January 1925

R. Ferguson Fish, Presbyterian

No	2
Date of Notice	22 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Stanley Elliott	Dolina Isabella Johnston
	💍 1925/1316
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	23 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Waipukurau
Folio	1918
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1925
Officiating Minister	R. Ferguson Fish, Presbyterian

23 January 1925

Archibald Henry Judd
Dona Scott

Archibald Henry Judd
Oona Scott
💍 1925/1317

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Manager
Spinster

23
23

Waipukurau
Waipukurau

3 days
5 1/2 years

Presbyterian Church, Waipukurau

1919

23 January 1925

R. F. Fish, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	23 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Henry Judd	Dona Scott
BDM Match (95%)	Archibald Henry Judd	Oona Scott
	💍 1925/1317
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Manager	Spinster
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	3 days	5 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Waipukurau
Folio	1919
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1925
Officiating Minister	R. F. Fish, Presbyterian

29 January 1925

Horace Redvers Maddaford
Iris Evelyn Barr

Horace Redvers Maddaford
Iris Evelyn Carr
💍 1925/1318

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Typiste

24
20

Waipukurau
Waipukurau

6 years
9 years

St. Mary's Church, Waipukurau

1920

Christiana Longthorn, mother

29 January 1925

E. D. Rice, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	29 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Redvers Maddaford	Iris Evelyn Barr
BDM Match (97%)	Horace Redvers Maddaford	Iris Evelyn Carr
	💍 1925/1318
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Typiste
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	6 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Church, Waipukurau
Folio	1920
Consent	Christiana Longthorn, mother
Date of Certificate	29 January 1925
Officiating Minister	E. D. Rice, Church of England

2 March 1925

Arthur Jackson
Ellen Gready

Arthur Jackson
Ellen Creedy
💍 1925/1319

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Housekeeper

44
34

Tamumu
Tamumu

8 years
2 years

Registrar's Office, Waipukurau

1921

2 March 1925

A. O. Rice, Deputy Registrar, Waipukurau

No	5
Date of Notice	2 March 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Jackson	Ellen Gready
BDM Match (92%)	Arthur Jackson	Ellen Creedy
	💍 1925/1319
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Housekeeper
Age	44	34
Dwelling Place	Tamumu	Tamumu
Length of Residence	8 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Waipukurau
Folio	1921
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1925
Officiating Minister	A. O. Rice, Deputy Registrar, Waipukurau

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).