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 1631

District of Greytown Quarter ending 30 September 1925 Registrar M. Allan

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

25 July 1925

William David Barr
Doris Hilda Morton

William David Barr
Dorris Hilda Morton
💍 1925/7018

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

31
29

Battersea, Greytown
Wellington

31 years
15 years

St Marks Anglican Church

7018

25 July 1925

Rev H. E. K. Fry, Anglican

No	9
Date of Notice	25 July 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William David Barr	Doris Hilda Morton
BDM Match (97%)	William David Barr	Dorris Hilda Morton
	💍 1925/7018
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Battersea, Greytown	Wellington
Length of Residence	31 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St Marks Anglican Church
Folio	7018
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev H. E. K. Fry, Anglican

3 August 1925

Frederick Charles Morgan
Lila Mary Parker

Frederick Charles Morgan
Lila Mary Parker
💍 1925/7019

Eric Charles Fleming
Edna May Parker
💍 1926/87

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm labourer
Domestic duties

21
20

Greytown
Greytown

21 years
10 years

Presbyterian Church

7019

Thomas Leonard Edwards, Stepfather

3 August 1925

W. Kearney, Presbyterian

No	10
Date of Notice	3 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Charles Morgan	Lila Mary Parker
	💍 1925/7019
BDM Match (63%)	Eric Charles Fleming	Edna May Parker
	💍 1926/87
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm labourer	Domestic duties
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	21 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church
Folio	7019
Consent	Thomas Leonard Edwards, Stepfather
Date of Certificate	3 August 1925
Officiating Minister	W. Kearney, Presbyterian

11 August 1925

Sinclair Thomas Thompson
Ethel Martha Feast

Sinclair Thomas Thompson
Ethel Martha Feast
💍 1925/7021

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Clerk

37
23

Greytown
Greytown

6 years
23 years

St Lukes Anglican Church

7020

11 August 1925

Rev G. R. Moir, Anglican

No	11
Date of Notice	11 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sinclair Thomas Thompson	Ethel Martha Feast
	💍 1925/7021
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Clerk
Age	37	23
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	6 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St Lukes Anglican Church
Folio	7020
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev G. R. Moir, Anglican

17 August 1925

Donald Grant Sutherland
Valerie Rosa Linley Morris

Donald Grant Sutherland
Valerie Rosa Linley Morris
💍 1925/7022

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

22
21

Morisons Bush, Greytown
Greytown

4 years
21 years

St Lukes Anglican Church

7021

17 August 1925

Rev W. F. Stent, Anglican

No	12
Date of Notice	17 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Grant Sutherland	Valerie Rosa Linley Morris
	💍 1925/7022
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Morisons Bush, Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	4 years	21 years
Marriage Place	St Lukes Anglican Church
Folio	7021
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev W. F. Stent, Anglican

August 1925

Percival George Thomas
Myrtle Olive Parker

Percival George Thomas
Myrtle Olive Parker
💍 1925/7024

Bachelor
Spinster

Ploughman
Domestic duties

21
19

Papawai
Greytown

11 years
8 years

Presbyterian Church

Thomas Leonard Edwards, Stepfather

W. Kearney, Presbyterian

No	13
Date of Notice	August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival George Thomas	Myrtle Olive Parker
	💍 1925/7024
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ploughman	Domestic duties
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Papawai	Greytown
Length of Residence	11 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church
Folio	14
Consent	Thomas Leonard Edwards, Stepfather
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	W. Kearney, Presbyterian

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).