Intentions to Marry, 1926 Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840539, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1926 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.

1926d contains pages 1389-1806, covering districts from Dannevirke to Palmerston North

Page 1551

District of Woodville Quarter ending 31 March 1926 Registrar W. P. Smith

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

2 January 1926

Matthew Fletcher Ryan
Lena Annie Harding

Matthew Fletcher Ryan
Lena Annie Harding
💍 1926/2102

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocers assistant
Domestic

37
29

Woodville
Woodville

6 years
23 years

Methodist Church, Woodville

2176

2 January 1926

Rev. John Southern, Methodist

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Matthew Fletcher Ryan	Lena Annie Harding
	💍 1926/2102
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocers assistant	Domestic
Age	37	29
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	6 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Woodville
Folio	2176
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Southern, Methodist

5 January 1926

Leslie Cahill
Elsie May Goodhue

Leslie Cahill
Elsie May Goodhue
💍 1926/2113

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway clerk
Domestic

35
24

Woodville
Kaikohe

1 month
12 years

Presbyterian Church, Kaikohe

2177

5 January 1926

Rev. James Alexander Thomson, Presbyterian

No	2
Date of Notice	5 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Cahill	Elsie May Goodhue
	💍 1926/2113
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway clerk	Domestic
Age	35	24
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Kaikohe
Length of Residence	1 month	12 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kaikohe
Folio	2177
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Alexander Thomson, Presbyterian

25 January 1926

John Caldwell McPherson Stringer
Myra Gladys Collins

John Caldwell McPherson Stringer
Myra Gwladys Collins
💍 1926/2120

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman New Zealand Railways
Domestic

22
19

Woodville
Woodville

2 years
19 years

St David's Presbyterian Church, Woodville

2178

Albert Edward Collins, father

25 January 1926

Rev. Robert Gardner, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	25 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Caldwell McPherson Stringer	Myra Gladys Collins
BDM Match (98%)	John Caldwell McPherson Stringer	Myra Gwladys Collins
	💍 1926/2120
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman New Zealand Railways	Domestic
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	2 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St David's Presbyterian Church, Woodville
Folio	2178
Consent	Albert Edward Collins, father
Date of Certificate	25 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. Robert Gardner, Presbyterian

6 February 1926

Nelson Harris
Louisa Clark

Nelson Harris
Louisa Clark
💍 1926/2121

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

21
22

Woodville
Woodville

6 days
22 years

Anglican Church, Woodville

2179

6 February 1926

Rev. Gerard Walkinshaw Davidson, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	6 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nelson Harris	Louisa Clark
	💍 1926/2121
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	6 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Woodville
Folio	2179
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. Gerard Walkinshaw Davidson, Church of England

10 February 1926

Edward Stuart Bibby
Mabel Katherine Hutchinson

Edward Stuart Bibby
Mabel Katherine Hutchinson
💍 1926/2122

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
School teacher

29
23

Ongaonga
Woodville

6 years
8 years

St David's Presbyterian Church, Woodville

2180

10 February 1926

Rev. Robert Gardner, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	10 February 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Stuart Bibby	Mabel Katherine Hutchinson
	💍 1926/2122
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	School teacher
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Ongaonga	Woodville
Length of Residence	6 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St David's Presbyterian Church, Woodville
Folio	2180
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. Robert Gardner, 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).