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 1556

District of Woodville Quarter ending 30 September 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

3 August 1926

John Keaphy
Amy Armstrong Anderson

John Heaphy
Amy Armstrong Anderson
💍 1926/5700

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway employee
Waitress

25
22

Palmerston North
Woodville

5 years
21 years

Methodist Church Woodville

7328

3 August 1926

Rev. J. Southern, Methodist

No	21
Date of Notice	3 August 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Keaphy	Amy Armstrong Anderson
BDM Match (95%)	John Heaphy	Amy Armstrong Anderson
	💍 1926/5700
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway employee	Waitress
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Woodville
Length of Residence	5 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Woodville
Folio	7328
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 August 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Southern, Methodist

20 August 1926

Hector Eric Berkahn
Dorothea Smith

Hector Eric Berkahn
Dorathea Smith
💍 1926/5701

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Domestic

21
20

Woodville
Woodville

7 years
4 months

Residence of John Berkahn, Ormond Street Woodville

7329

Francis Sidney Smith, Father

20 August 1926

Rev. R. Gardner, Presbyterian

No	22
Date of Notice	20 August 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hector Eric Berkahn	Dorothea Smith
BDM Match (96%)	Hector Eric Berkahn	Dorathea Smith
	💍 1926/5701
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Domestic
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	7 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Residence of John Berkahn, Ormond Street Woodville
Folio	7329
Consent	Francis Sidney Smith, Father
Date of Certificate	20 August 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Gardner, Presbyterian

23 August 1926

Cyril Leslie Morgan
Ruby Amelia Smith

Cyril Leslie Morgan
Ruby Amelia Smith
💍 1926/5702

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

24
20

Woodville
Woodville

10 years
20 years

Methodist Church Woodville

7330

Ellen Amelia Smith, Mother

23 August 1926

Rev. J. Southern, Methodist

No	23
Date of Notice	23 August 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Leslie Morgan	Ruby Amelia Smith
	💍 1926/5702
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	10 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Woodville
Folio	7330
Consent	Ellen Amelia Smith, Mother
Date of Certificate	23 August 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Southern, Methodist

13 September 1926

William Frederick Campbell
Alice Maude De La Haye

William Frederick Campbell
Alice Maude De-La-Haye
💍 1926/5703

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic

29
25

Woodville
Woodville

1 day
25 years

Presbyterian Church Woodville

7331

13 September 1926

Rev. R. Gardner, Presbyterian

No	24
Date of Notice	13 September 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Frederick Campbell	Alice Maude De La Haye
BDM Match (95%)	William Frederick Campbell	Alice Maude De-La-Haye
	💍 1926/5703
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Woodville
Length of Residence	1 day	25 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Woodville
Folio	7331
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 September 1926
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Gardner, Presbyterian

18 September 1926

David Bennet
Agnes Ann Burgess

David Bennet
Agnes Ann Burgess
💍 1926/5704

Bachelor
Spinster

Station hand
Domestic

32
30

Kumeroa
Woodville

6 months
10 days

Registrar's office Woodville

7332

18 September 1926

W. P. Smith, Registrar

No	25
Date of Notice	18 September 1926
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Bennet	Agnes Ann Burgess
	💍 1926/5704
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station hand	Domestic
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Kumeroa	Woodville
Length of Residence	6 months	10 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's office Woodville
Folio	7332
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 September 1926
Officiating Minister	W. P. Smith, Registrar

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).