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 1750

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 31 March 1926 Registrar E. Wood

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 January 1926

Augustus James Wood
Grace Agnes Gerrard

Augustus James Wood
Grace Agnes Gerrand
💍 1926/2004

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

22
22

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

12 years
20 years

St Andrews Church

2284

14 January 1926

Rev. W. McAra, Presbyterian

No	6
Date of Notice	14 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Augustus James Wood	Grace Agnes Gerrard
BDM Match (97%)	Augustus James Wood	Grace Agnes Gerrand
	💍 1926/2004
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	12 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church
Folio	2284
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. McAra, Presbyterian

14 January 1926

Arthur Huelin Gaudin
Ada Rose Gedge

Arthur Huelin Gaudin
Ada Rose Gedge
💍 1926/1981

Bachelor
Spinster

Taxi Driver

26
33

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

9 months
10 months

All Saints Church

2285

14 January 1926

Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

No	7
Date of Notice	14 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Huelin Gaudin	Ada Rose Gedge
	💍 1926/1981
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Taxi Driver
Age	26	33
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	9 months	10 months
Marriage Place	All Saints Church
Folio	2285
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

20 January 1926

Joseph Walton Mayo
Dorothy Liebet Biel

Joseph Walton Mayo
Dorothy Liebet Biel
💍 1926/1982

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruit Grower

22
24

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

22 years
12 years

Cuba Street Methodist Church

2286

20 January 1926

Rev. H. T. Peat, Methodist

No	8
Date of Notice	20 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Walton Mayo	Dorothy Liebet Biel
	💍 1926/1982
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruit Grower
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	22 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Cuba Street Methodist Church
Folio	2286
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. T. Peat, Methodist

21 January 1926

Ronald Daniel Ferguson
Evelyn May King

Ronald Daniel Ferguson
Evelyn May King
💍 1926/1983

Bachelor
Spinster

Advertising Clerk
Clerk

27
22

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 years
21 years

All Saints Church

2287

21 January 1926

Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

No	9
Date of Notice	21 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ronald Daniel Ferguson	Evelyn May King
	💍 1926/1983
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Advertising Clerk	Clerk
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 years	21 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church
Folio	2287
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

25 January 1926

Leonard Old
Kathleen Frances Fowler

Leonard Old
Kathleen Frances Fowler
💍 1926/1984

Divorced (decree absolute May 1925)
Spinster

Engineer

28
29

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 days
3 days

Registrars Office, Palmerston North

2288

25 January 1926

Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	25 January 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Old	Kathleen Frances Fowler
	💍 1926/1984
Condition	Divorced (decree absolute May 1925)	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Palmerston North
Folio	2288
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1926
Officiating Minister	Registrar

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).