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 2039

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. C. 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

12 January 1920

John Glanville Nichol
Emily Isabel McCalman

John Glanville Nichol
Emily Isabel McCalman
💍 1920/2978

Widower 20: 11: 1918
Spinster

Company Manager

35
26

Wellington
Wellington

6 days
5 days

St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

518

12 January 1920

Rev. D. H. Hurley Roman Catholic

No	41
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Glanville Nichol	Emily Isabel McCalman
	💍 1920/2978
Condition	Widower 20: 11: 1918	Spinster
Profession	Company Manager
Age	35	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 days	5 days
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	518
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. H. Hurley Roman Catholic

12 January 1920

Albert Sydney Williams Commonly known as Walter John Williams Elliott
Mabel Nellie Brennan

Walter John Williams Elliott
Mabel Nellie Brennan
💍 1920/2979

Bachelor
Spinster

Wharfinger

31
22

Eastbourne
Eastbourne

5 years
22 years

St Albans Church Eastbourne Wellington

519

12 January 1920

Rev. Om Stent Anglican Church of England

No	42
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Sydney Williams Commonly known as Walter John Williams Elliott	Mabel Nellie Brennan
BDM Match (70%)	Walter John Williams Elliott	Mabel Nellie Brennan
	💍 1920/2979
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wharfinger
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Eastbourne	Eastbourne
Length of Residence	5 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St Albans Church Eastbourne Wellington
Folio	519
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Om Stent Anglican Church of England

12 January 1920

James Henry Fitzgerald
Mary Ellen Christie

James Henry Fitzgerald
Mary Ellen Christie
💍 1920/2981

Bachelor
Spinster

Steward

29
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
4 years

St Mark's Church Wellington

520

12 January 1920

Rev. A. T. B. Page Anglican Church of England

No	43
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Henry Fitzgerald	Mary Ellen Christie
	💍 1920/2981
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Steward
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	520
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. B. Page Anglican Church of England

12 January 1920

Alexander Gardiner
Margaret Russell

Alexander Gardiner
Margaret Russell
💍 1920/2982

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
23

Lower Hutt
Wellington

6 years
23 years

Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington

521

12 January 1920

Rev. J. G. Chapman Methodist

No	44
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Gardiner	Margaret Russell
	💍 1920/2982
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	521
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman Methodist

12 January 1920

Ernest Horton Picot
Lucy Winifred Willans

Ernest Horton Picot
Lucy Winifred Willans
💍 1920/2983

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

29
31

Karori
Day's Bay

29 years
31 years

St Albans Church Eastbourne Wellington

522

12 January 1920

Rev. R. H. Hobday Anglican Church of England

No	45
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Horton Picot	Lucy Winifred Willans
	💍 1920/2983
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	29	31
Dwelling Place	Karori	Day's Bay
Length of Residence	29 years	31 years
Marriage Place	St Albans Church Eastbourne Wellington
Folio	522
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. H. Hobday Anglican Church of England

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).