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 2031

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. G. Evans

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 January 1920

George Wallace Jolly
Annie Brien

George Wallace Jolly
Annie Brien
💍 1920/3062

Divorced Decree absolute 9:12:1919
Widow 13:2:1917

Coach painter

49
55

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
10 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

478

3 January 1920

Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Wallace Jolly	Annie Brien
	💍 1920/3062
Condition	Divorced Decree absolute 9:12:1919	Widow 13:2:1917
Profession	Coach painter
Age	49	55
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	478
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

3 January 1920

John Clement Orr
Ruth Battersby Smith

John Clement Orr
Ruth Battersby Smith
💍 1920/3063

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

40
37

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
Life

Congregational Church Wellington Terrace Wellington

479

3 January 1920

Rev J Reed Glasson (Cong) Congregational

No	2
Date of Notice	3 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Clement Orr	Ruth Battersby Smith
	💍 1920/3063
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	40	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	Life
Marriage Place	Congregational Church Wellington Terrace Wellington
Folio	479
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J Reed Glasson (Cong) Congregational

3 January 1920

Albert Phillip House
Mary Blewman

Albert Phillip House
Mary Blewman
💍 1920/3064

Bachelor
Spinster

Stoveman

29
25

Petone
Wellington

15 years
25 years

St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

480

3 January 1920

Rev J J O'Connor Roman Catholic

No	3
Date of Notice	3 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Phillip House	Mary Blewman
	💍 1920/3064
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stoveman
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	480
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J J O'Connor Roman Catholic

3 January 1920

Harry Leatham
Mabel Lilian Mace

Harry Leatham
Mabel Lilian Mace
💍 1920/3065

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

33
31

Wellington
Wellington

31 years
31 years

Presbyterian Manse 35 Pirie Street Wellington

481

3 January 1920

Rev J K Elliott Presbyterian

No	4
Date of Notice	3 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Leatham	Mabel Lilian Mace
	💍 1920/3065
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	31 years	31 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse 35 Pirie Street Wellington
Folio	481
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J K Elliott Presbyterian

3 January 1920

Sydney Hand
Minnie Whelehan Crotty

Sydney Hand
Minnie Whelehan Crotty
💍 1920/3066

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmakers Pressman

29
23

Ngaio
Wellington

27 years
2 weeks

St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

482

3 January 1920

Rev D H Hurley Roman Catholic

No	5
Date of Notice	3 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Hand	Minnie Whelehan Crotty
	💍 1920/3066
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmakers Pressman
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Ngaio	Wellington
Length of Residence	27 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	482
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev D H Hurley Roman Catholic

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).