Intentions to Marry, 1927 Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840545, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1927 is bound in four volumes (a to d) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1927b contains pages 927-1804, covering districts from Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Page 1751

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 31 March 1927

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

4 January 1927

Arthur Ernest Bhatfield
Boral Eyre Masemann

Arthur Ernest Chatfield
Coral Eyre Masemann
💍 1927/2133

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

23
17

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

8 years
13 years

All Saints Church, Palmerston North

1993

Marie Louise Beals, formerly Masemann, mother

4 January 1927

Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

No	1
Date of Notice	4 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Ernest Bhatfield	Boral Eyre Masemann
BDM Match (95%)	Arthur Ernest Chatfield	Coral Eyre Masemann
	💍 1927/2133
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	8 years	13 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Palmerston North
Folio	1993
Consent	Marie Louise Beals, formerly Masemann, mother
Date of Certificate	4 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

4 January 1927

Thomas John Rodgers
Emilie May Barnett

Thomas John Rodgers
Emilie May Barnett
💍 1927/2134

Bachelor
Divorced decree absolute 7 December 1926

Painter

38
40

Palmerston North
Kelvin Grove

2 weeks
1 month

Registrars office, Palmerston North

1994

4 January 1927

Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	4 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas John Rodgers	Emilie May Barnett
	💍 1927/2134
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced decree absolute 7 December 1926
Profession	Painter
Age	38	40
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Kelvin Grove
Length of Residence	2 weeks	1 month
Marriage Place	Registrars office, Palmerston North
Folio	1994
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Registrar

4 January 1927

Eric John Bingham Hayes
Ellen Thelma O'Hagan

Eric John Bingham Hayes
Ellen Thelma O'Hagan
💍 1927/2135

Bachelor
Spinster

Linesman Public Works

20
17

Woodville
Fitzherbert

8 years
1 week

Registrars office, Palmerston North

1995

Alexander Hayes (father), John O'Hagan (father)

4 January 1927

Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	4 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric John Bingham Hayes	Ellen Thelma O'Hagan
	💍 1927/2135
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Linesman Public Works
Age	20	17
Dwelling Place	Woodville	Fitzherbert
Length of Residence	8 years	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrars office, Palmerston North
Folio	1995
Consent	Alexander Hayes (father), John O'Hagan (father)
Date of Certificate	4 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Registrar

5 January 1927

Frederick William Berry South
Helena Taylor

Frederick William Berry South
Helena Taylor
💍 1927/2136

Bachelor
Widow 8 November 1925

Medical Practitioner

68
54

Waipawa
Palmerston North

14 years
3 days

Registrars office, Palmerston North

1996

5 January 1927

Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	5 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Berry South	Helena Taylor
	💍 1927/2136
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 8 November 1925
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	68	54
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	14 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrars office, Palmerston North
Folio	1996
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Registrar

5 January 1927

Frank Alison McLachlan
Dorothy Eileen Hollier

Frank Alison McLachlan
Dorothy Eileen Hollier
💍 1927/2138

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer

27
26

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

23 years
25 years

St Andrews Church, Palmerston North

1997

5 January 1927

Rev. R. Inglis, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	5 January 1927
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Alison McLachlan	Dorothy Eileen Hollier
	💍 1927/2138
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	23 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church, Palmerston North
Folio	1997
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1927
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Inglis, 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).