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 1515

District of Wairoa Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar J. Fletcher

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

16 January 1925

Nepia Wetini Anaru
Polly Thompson

Nepia Wetini Anaru
Polly Thompson
💍 1925/1322

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

21
16

Tangoio
Mohaka

Life
1 day

Registrar's Office, Wairoa

1923

Emily Thompson, mother

16 January 1925

J. Fletcher

No	1
Date of Notice	16 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nepia Wetini Anaru	Polly Thompson
	💍 1925/1322
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	21	16
Dwelling Place	Tangoio	Mohaka
Length of Residence	Life	1 day
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wairoa
Folio	1923
Consent	Emily Thompson, mother
Date of Certificate	16 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Fletcher

17 January 1925

Ernest Rasmus Simonsen
Annie Margaret Halloway

Ernest Rasmus Simonsen
Annie Margaret Holloway
💍 1925/1323

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

27
25

Wairoa
Wairoa

7 years
2 years

Roman Catholic Church, Wairoa

1924

17 January 1925

C. Lacroix, Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	17 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Rasmus Simonsen	Annie Margaret Halloway
BDM Match (98%)	Ernest Rasmus Simonsen	Annie Margaret Holloway
	💍 1925/1323
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	7 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Wairoa
Folio	1924
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1925
Officiating Minister	C. Lacroix, Roman Catholic

20 January 1925

William George Hodge Weadon
Lilias Porteous Thomson

William George Hodge Weadon
Lilias Porteous Thomson
💍 1925/1324

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk in Holy Orders
Domestic Duties

41
38

Wairoa
Wairoa

1 year
5 years

St. Paul's Church of England, Wairoa

1925

20 January 1925

Ja. Shardlow, Church of England

No	3
Date of Notice	20 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William George Hodge Weadon	Lilias Porteous Thomson
	💍 1925/1324
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk in Holy Orders	Domestic Duties
Age	41	38
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	1 year	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Church of England, Wairoa
Folio	1925
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1925
Officiating Minister	Ja. Shardlow, Church of England

28 January 1925

George Richard Phillips
Elsie May Richardson

George Richard Phillips
Elsie May Richardson
💍 1925/1325

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Domestic Duties

37
30

Frasertown
Frasertown

Life
15 years

St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Wairoa

1926

28 January 1925

P. M. Murray, Presbyterian

No	4
Date of Notice	28 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Richard Phillips	Elsie May Richardson
	💍 1925/1325
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Domestic Duties
Age	37	30
Dwelling Place	Frasertown	Frasertown
Length of Residence	Life	15 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Wairoa
Folio	1926
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1925
Officiating Minister	P. M. Murray, Presbyterian

31 January 1925

Walter Robert Peter McGregor
Susie Campbell

Walter Robert Peter McGregor
Susie Campbell
💍 1925/1326

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

24
21

Wairoa
Wairoa

24 years
21 years

Registrar's Office, Wairoa

1927

31 January 1925

J. Fletcher, Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	31 January 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Robert Peter McGregor	Susie Campbell
	💍 1925/1326
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wairoa	Wairoa
Length of Residence	24 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wairoa
Folio	1927
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1925
Officiating Minister	J. Fletcher, Registrar

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).