Intentions to Marry, 1920 Pongaroa to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840492, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1920 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.

1920e contains pages 1885-2344, covering districts from Pongaroa to Wellington

Page 2208

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1920 Registrar R. O. Connor

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

840

24 July 1920

Thomas Foley
Maud Lilian Taylor

Thomas Foley
Maud Lilian Taylor
💍 1920/6036

Widower 15 April 1915
Divorced Decree Absolute 12 June 1919

Plasterer

34
31

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
2 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7014

24 July 1920

Registrar

No	840
Date of Notice	24 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Foley	Maud Lilian Taylor
	💍 1920/6036
Condition	Widower 15 April 1915	Divorced Decree Absolute 12 June 1919
Profession	Plasterer
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7014
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

841

26 July 1920

George Smith Hall
Violet Sara Ponsonby Pickett

George Smith Hall
Violet Sara Ponsonby Pickett
💍 1920/6037

Bachelor
Spinster

Chief Officer Mercantile Marine

36
28

Wellington
Lawrence

3 days
7 days

St Peter's Church, Wellington

7015

26 July 1920

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

No	841
Date of Notice	26 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Smith Hall	Violet Sara Ponsonby Pickett
	💍 1920/6037
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chief Officer Mercantile Marine
Age	36	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lawrence
Length of Residence	3 days	7 days
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	7015
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

842

26 July 1920

Frederick Mason
Mary Josephine Devine

Frederick Mason
Mary Josephine Devine
💍 1920/6038

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

32
22

Petone
Petone

Life
6 days

St James Church Lower Hutt, Wellington

7016

26 July 1920

Rev. W. G. Baker, Anglican

No	842
Date of Notice	26 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Mason	Mary Josephine Devine
	💍 1920/6038
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	Life	6 days
Marriage Place	St James Church Lower Hutt, Wellington
Folio	7016
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. G. Baker, Anglican

843

26 July 1920

Walter King
Catherine Jane Norman

Walter King
Catherine Jane Norman
💍 1920/6039

Bachelor
Widow 24 November 1918

Sailor

26
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
5 years

St Peter's Church, Wellington

7017

26 July 1920

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

No	843
Date of Notice	26 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter King	Catherine Jane Norman
	💍 1920/6039
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 24 November 1918
Profession	Sailor
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	7017
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

844

26 July 1920

William Edward Smith
Alice Mabel Webb

William Edward Smith
Alice Mabel Webb
💍 1920/6040

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 19 December 1919

Storeman

26
36

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7018

26 July 1920

Registrar

No	844
Date of Notice	26 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edward Smith	Alice Mabel Webb
	💍 1920/6040
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 19 December 1919
Profession	Storeman
Age	26	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7018
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1920
Officiating Minister	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).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

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).