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 2037

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. O. Benney

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

8 January 1920

Robert Gordon Whiteacre
Caroline Rotherham

Robert Gordon Whiteacre
Caroline Rotherham
💍 1920/2992

Bachelor
Spinster

Harbour Board Employee

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
20 years

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

508

George Rotherham (father)

8 January 1920

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican (Church of England)

No	31
Date of Notice	8 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Gordon Whiteacre	Caroline Rotherham
	💍 1920/2992
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Harbour Board Employee
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	508
Consent	George Rotherham (father)
Date of Certificate	8 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, Anglican (Church of England)

8 January 1920

Alfred James Havelock Benge
Margaret O'Malley

Alfred James Havelock Benge
Margaret O'Malley
💍 1920/2993

Widower 14: 4: 1918
Widow 18: 11: 1916

Civil Servant

36
28

Khandallah
Wellington

18 years
3 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

509

8 January 1920

Rev. D. H. Hurley (Roman Catholic)

No	32
Date of Notice	8 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred James Havelock Benge	Margaret O'Malley
	💍 1920/2993
Condition	Widower 14: 4: 1918	Widow 18: 11: 1916
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	36	28
Dwelling Place	Khandallah	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	509
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. H. Hurley (Roman Catholic)

8 January 1920

William Patrick Lineham
Violet Burridge

William Patrick Linehan
Violet Burridge
💍 1920/2970

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

21
21

Petone
Petone

14 years
21 years

The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

510

8 January 1920

Rev. F. L. Dignan (Roman Catholic)

No	33
Date of Notice	8 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Patrick Lineham	Violet Burridge
BDM Match (98%)	William Patrick Linehan	Violet Burridge
	💍 1920/2970
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	14 years	21 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	510
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. L. Dignan (Roman Catholic)

8 January 1920

Peter Hennessey
Agnes Agatha Kovaleske

Peter Hennessey
Agnes Agatha Kovaleske
💍 1920/2971

Widower 16: 3: 1916
Spinster

Painter

35
36

Wellington
Wellington

8 months
6 years

The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

511

8 January 1920

Rev. P. J. Smyth (Roman Catholic)

No	34
Date of Notice	8 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Hennessey	Agnes Agatha Kovaleske
	💍 1920/2971
Condition	Widower 16: 3: 1916	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	35	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	6 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	511
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Smyth (Roman Catholic)

8 January 1920

William Reginald Roberts
Ida Caroline Ducke

William Reginald Roberts
Ida Caroline Duske
💍 1920/2972

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet maker

32
33

Kilbirnie
Brooklyn

1 year
8 years

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

512

8 January 1920

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican (Church of England)

No	35
Date of Notice	8 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Reginald Roberts	Ida Caroline Ducke
BDM Match (97%)	William Reginald Roberts	Ida Caroline Duske
	💍 1920/2972
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet maker
Age	32	33
Dwelling Place	Kilbirnie	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	1 year	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	512
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, 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).