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 1358

District of Dannevirke Quarter ending 31 March 1925 Registrar [illegible]

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

14 February 1925

Charles William Wall
Jeannie Chalmers McPherson

Charles William Watt
Jeannie Chalmers McPherson
💍 1925/9915

Bachelor
Spinster

Presbyterian Minister
Schoolteacher

38
35

Dannevirke
Dannevirke

2 days
33 years

Knox Presbyterian Church, Dannevirke

1821

14 February 1925

Rev. C. Connor, Presbyterian

No	6
Date of Notice	14 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles William Wall	Jeannie Chalmers McPherson
BDM Match (95%)	Charles William Watt	Jeannie Chalmers McPherson
	💍 1925/9915
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Presbyterian Minister	Schoolteacher
Age	38	35
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Dannevirke
Length of Residence	2 days	33 years
Marriage Place	Knox Presbyterian Church, Dannevirke
Folio	1821
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Connor, Presbyterian

16 February 1925

Thomas Walter Batt
Elsie Isabella Jenkins

Thomas Walter Bott
Elsie Isabella Jenkins
💍 1925/1280

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Tailoress

35
24

Dannevirke
Dannevirke

8 years
6 years

Knox Presbyterian Church, Dannevirke

1830

16 February 1925

Rev. A. C. Hunt, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	16 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Walter Batt	Elsie Isabella Jenkins
BDM Match (97%)	Thomas Walter Bott	Elsie Isabella Jenkins
	💍 1925/1280
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Tailoress
Age	35	24
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Dannevirke
Length of Residence	8 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Knox Presbyterian Church, Dannevirke
Folio	1830
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. C. Hunt, Presbyterian

17 February 1925

Ludwig Bjornshauge Hansen
Pege Baird

Ludvig Bjornshauge Hausen
Pegé Baird
💍 1925/9916

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
Laundress

28
24

Dannevirke
Dannevirke

8 years
1 1/2 years

St. John's Church, Dannevirke

1822

17 February 1925

Rev. J. B. Stephenson, Anglican

No	8
Date of Notice	17 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ludwig Bjornshauge Hansen	Pege Baird
BDM Match (87%)	Ludvig Bjornshauge Hausen	Pegé Baird
	💍 1925/9916
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	Laundress
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Dannevirke
Length of Residence	8 years	1 1/2 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Dannevirke
Folio	1822
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Stephenson, Anglican

19 February 1925

Harry Carr
Irene Maud Mayes Bilderbeck

Harry Carr
Irene Maud Mavis Bilderbeck
💍 1925/9917

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel Porter
Domestic

28
21

Dannevirke
Dannevirke

6 months
2 weeks

62 McPhee Street, Dannevirke

1823

19 February 1925

Ensign Hawkes, Salvation Army

No	9
Date of Notice	19 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Carr	Irene Maud Mayes Bilderbeck
BDM Match (96%)	Harry Carr	Irene Maud Mavis Bilderbeck
	💍 1925/9917
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel Porter	Domestic
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Dannevirke
Length of Residence	6 months	2 weeks
Marriage Place	62 McPhee Street, Dannevirke
Folio	1823
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Ensign Hawkes, Salvation Army

20 February 1925

Ernest Blackwell Jasson
Clare Gita Walshe

Ernest Blackwell Gasson
Clare Zita Walshe
💍 1925/9918

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Exchange Attendant

25
23

Belfast
Dannevirke

1 day
23 years

Roman Catholic Church, Dannevirke

1824

20 February 1925

Rev. Father S. Guinane, Roman Catholic

No	10
Date of Notice	20 February 1925
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Blackwell Jasson	Clare Gita Walshe
BDM Match (95%)	Ernest Blackwell Gasson	Clare Zita Walshe
	💍 1925/9918
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Exchange Attendant
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Belfast	Dannevirke
Length of Residence	1 day	23 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Dannevirke
Folio	1824
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1925
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father S. Guinane, Roman Catholic

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).