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 1444

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 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

147

28 October 1925

Horace Joseph Lynch
Sarah Bulalie Balfour

Horace Joseph Lynch
Sarah Eulalie Balfour
💍 1925/10099

Bachelor
Spinster

Sales Manager
Domestic Duties

24
24

Napier
Napier

22 years
18 months

St. Patrick's Church, Napier

9708

28 October 1925

Father O'Shaughnessy, Roman Catholic

No	147
Date of Notice	28 October 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Joseph Lynch	Sarah Bulalie Balfour
BDM Match (98%)	Horace Joseph Lynch	Sarah Eulalie Balfour
	💍 1925/10099
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sales Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	22 years	18 months
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Church, Napier
Folio	9708
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1925
Officiating Minister	Father O'Shaughnessy, Roman Catholic

148

29 October 1925

John Malcolm Downes
Mary Eleanor Brown

John Malcolm Downes
Mary Eleanor Brown
💍 1925/10100

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

29
28

Frasertown
Tangioio

8 months
8 months

St. Paul's Church, Napier

9709

29 October 1925

C. Matear, Presbyterian

No	148
Date of Notice	29 October 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Malcolm Downes	Mary Eleanor Brown
	💍 1925/10100
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Frasertown	Tangioio
Length of Residence	8 months	8 months
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Church, Napier
Folio	9709
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1925
Officiating Minister	C. Matear, Presbyterian

149

3 November 1925

Charles Alfred Baker
Eva Brown

Did not proceed at this stage but see 1926/4674 12 May 1926

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Waitress

30
30

Whakatu
Napier

6 years
2 years

St. Augustine's Church, Napier

3 November 1925

H. W. Klingender, Church of England

No	149
Date of Notice	3 November 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Alfred Baker	Eva Brown
	💍 Did not proceed at this stage but see 1926/4674 12 May 1926
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Waitress
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Whakatu	Napier
Length of Residence	6 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church, Napier
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 November 1925
Officiating Minister	H. W. Klingender, Church of England

150

4 November 1925

Frank Beckley
Mildred Hancock

Frank Beckley
Mildred Hancock
💍 1925/10101

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Bridgeman
Domestic Duties

27
27

Napier
Napier

1 week
1 week

St. John's Cathedral, Napier

9710

4 November 1925

Dean Mayne, Church of England

No	150
Date of Notice	4 November 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Beckley	Mildred Hancock
	💍 1925/10101
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Bridgeman	Domestic Duties
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	St. John's Cathedral, Napier
Folio	9710
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 November 1925
Officiating Minister	Dean Mayne, Church of England

151

9 November 1925

James McNeil
Nellie Evelyn Clark

James McNeil
Nellie Evelyn Clark
💍 1925/10078

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Domestic Duties

38
26

Whatatutu
Opotiki

5 years
8 years

St. John's Cathedral, Napier

9711

9 November 1925

Archdeacon Simkin, Church of England

No	151
Date of Notice	9 November 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McNeil	Nellie Evelyn Clark
	💍 1925/10078
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Domestic Duties
Age	38	26
Dwelling Place	Whatatutu	Opotiki
Length of Residence	5 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Cathedral, Napier
Folio	9711
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 November 1925
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon Simkin, 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).