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 1400

District of Hastings Quarter ending 30 September 1925 Registrar R. Brathwaite

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

108

20 August 1925

Thomas Bormick
Mary Johnson

Cormick Thomas McAvinue
Mary Johnson
💍 1925/6911

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic duties

32
26

Hastings
Hastings

5 years
4 months

Roman Catholic Church, Hastings

6911

20 August 1925

Rev. Father McDonald, Roman Catholic

No	108
Date of Notice	20 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Bormick	Mary Johnson
BDM Match (67%)	Cormick Thomas McAvinue	Mary Johnson
	💍 1925/6911
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic duties
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	5 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hastings
Folio	6911
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father McDonald, Roman Catholic

109

20 August 1925

James Nathaniel Lowe
Jean Wallace Traynor

James Nathaniel Lowe
Jean Wallace Traynor
💍 1925/6912

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Schoolteacher

47
32

Hastings
Dunedin

6 months
5 years

St. Matthews Church, Hastings

6912

20 August 1925

Rev. J. E. Draper, Anglican

No	109
Date of Notice	20 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Nathaniel Lowe	Jean Wallace Traynor
	💍 1925/6912
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Schoolteacher
Age	47	32
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 months	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Hastings
Folio	6912
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. E. Draper, Anglican

110

21 August 1925

William Thomas Sturrock
Mary Catherine Aldridge

William Thomas Sturrock
Mary Catherine Aldridge
💍 1925/6913

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanician
Department Shop Assistant

27
25

Wanganui
Hastings

3 years
25 years

Roman Catholic Church, Hastings

6913

21 August 1925

Rev. Father McDonald, Roman Catholic

No	110
Date of Notice	21 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomas Sturrock	Mary Catherine Aldridge
	💍 1925/6913
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanician	Department Shop Assistant
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Hastings
Length of Residence	3 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Hastings
Folio	6913
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father McDonald, Roman Catholic

111

22 August 1925

Ian Battman Macker
Florence Gwendoline Sollitt

Ian Battman Macken
Florence Gwendoline Sollitt
💍 1925/6914

Bachelor
Spinster

School teacher
School teacher

25
26

Hastings
Palmerston North

8 years
1 week

St. Peters Church, Palmerston North

6914

22 August 1925

Rev. J. E. Abbott, Anglican

No	111
Date of Notice	22 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ian Battman Macker	Florence Gwendoline Sollitt
BDM Match (97%)	Ian Battman Macken	Florence Gwendoline Sollitt
	💍 1925/6914
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School teacher	School teacher
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	8 years	1 week
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Palmerston North
Folio	6914
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. E. Abbott, Anglican

112

26 August 1925

Frank Short
Hilda Bridger

Frank Short
Hilda Bridger
💍 1925/6915

Widower
Spinster

Railway employee
Nurse

42
42

Hastings
Hastings

10 years
1 year

St. Matthews Church, Hastings

6915

26 August 1925

Rev. J. E. Draper, Anglican

No	112
Date of Notice	26 August 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Short	Hilda Bridger
	💍 1925/6915
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Railway employee	Nurse
Age	42	42
Dwelling Place	Hastings	Hastings
Length of Residence	10 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Hastings
Folio	6915
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 August 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. E. Draper, Anglican

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).