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 2035

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

6 January 1920

Charles Pettigrew
Edith Ellen Clout

Charles Pettigrew
Edith Ellen Clout
💍 1920/3059

Bachelor
Spinster

Tram Conductor

27
22

Wellington
Wellington

13 years
22 years

St James's Church, Wellington South

498

6 January 1920

Rev. W. Shirer (Presbyterian)

No	21
Date of Notice	6 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Pettigrew	Edith Ellen Clout
	💍 1920/3059
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tram Conductor
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St James's Church, Wellington South
Folio	498
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer (Presbyterian)

7 January 1920

Leonard Leigh Hunt
Florence Monica Isaac

Leonard Leigh Hunt
Florence Monica Isaac
💍 1920/3060

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

32
23

Wellington
Wellington

Life
18 years

St Mark's Church, Wellington

499

7 January 1920

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

No	22
Date of Notice	7 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Leigh Hunt	Florence Monica Isaac
	💍 1920/3060
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	18 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	499
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. B. Page (Anglican Church of England)

7 January 1920

Hugh McClure
Elsie Ellen Margaret McColl

Hugh McClure
Elsie Ellen Margaret McColl
💍 1920/3061

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

23
19

Kilbirnie
Newtown

14 years
19 years

St Anne's Church, Newtown, Wellington

500

John Duncan McColl (Father)

7 January 1920

Rev. M. Devoy (Roman Catholic)

No	23
Date of Notice	7 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh McClure	Elsie Ellen Margaret McColl
	💍 1920/3061
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Kilbirnie	Newtown
Length of Residence	14 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church, Newtown, Wellington
Folio	500
Consent	John Duncan McColl (Father)
Date of Certificate	7 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Devoy (Roman Catholic)

7 January 1920

Frank Winfrid Millar
Winifred Annie Maginnity

Frank Winfird Millar
Winifred Annie Maginnity
💍 1920/2969

Widower 11:1:1919
Spinster

Secretary

34
26

Hataitai
Wellington

19 years
26 years

The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington

501

7 January 1920

Rev. T. J. Dignan (Roman Catholic)

No	24
Date of Notice	7 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Winfrid Millar	Winifred Annie Maginnity
BDM Match (95%)	Frank Winfird Millar	Winifred Annie Maginnity
	💍 1920/2969
Condition	Widower 11:1:1919	Spinster
Profession	Secretary
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Hataitai	Wellington
Length of Residence	19 years	26 years
Marriage Place	The Basilica, Hill Street, Wellington
Folio	501
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. J. Dignan (Roman Catholic)

7 January 1920

John Hooper
Ethel May Tees

John Hooper
Ethel May Tees
💍 1920/2980

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
25

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
20 years

Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington

502

7 January 1920

Rev. W. S. Rollings (Baptist)

No	25
Date of Notice	7 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hooper	Ethel May Tees
	💍 1920/2980
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	20 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington
Folio	502
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. S. Rollings (Baptist)

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).