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 2045

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar W. W. Samson

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

19 January 1920

Edward Ernest Brooker
Margretta Chittick

Edward Ernest Brooker
Magretta Chittick
💍 1920/3107

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

31
24

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

20 years
9 years

Presbyterian Church Lower Hutt

546

19 January 1920

Rev. J. McCaw (Presbyterian)

No	71
Date of Notice	19 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Ernest Brooker	Margretta Chittick
BDM Match (97%)	Edward Ernest Brooker	Magretta Chittick
	💍 1920/3107
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	20 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Lower Hutt
Folio	546
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McCaw (Presbyterian)

20 January 1920

Alan John Robinson
Stella Mary De Grandi

Alan John Robinson
Stella Mary de Grandi
💍 1920/3108

Bachelor
Spinster

Club Steward

29
21

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 years

St Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington

547

20 January 1920

Rev. R. Hoare (Roman Catholic)

No	72
Date of Notice	20 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alan John Robinson	Stella Mary De Grandi
BDM Match (98%)	Alan John Robinson	Stella Mary de Grandi
	💍 1920/3108
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Club Steward
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church Boulcott Street Wellington
Folio	547
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Hoare (Roman Catholic)

20 January 1920

John March
Mary Ann Jane Helm

John March
Mary Ann Jane Helm
💍 1920/3109

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

41
38

Petone
Wellington

4 months
10 years

Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington

548

20 January 1920

Rev. J. K. Elliott (Presbyterian)

No	73
Date of Notice	20 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John March	Mary Ann Jane Helm
	💍 1920/3109
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	41	38
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	10 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington
Folio	548
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott (Presbyterian)

20 January 1920

James Henry Heginbotham
Jean Marriott

James Henry Heginbotham
Jean Marriott
💍 1920/3110

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

31
31

Wellington
Brooklyn Wellington

3 days
10 years

St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington

549

20 January 1920

Rev. T. T. Taylor Anglican Church of England

No	74
Date of Notice	20 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Henry Heginbotham	Jean Marriott
	💍 1920/3110
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Brooklyn Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	549
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. T. Taylor Anglican Church of England

20 January 1920

Christopher Henry Pinnock
Agnes Florence Hine

Christopher Henry Pinnock
Agnes Florance Hine
💍 1920/3111

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer

38
37

Roseneath
Roseneath Wellington

16 years
2 weeks

St Barnabas Church Roseneath Wellington

550

20 January 1920

Rev. H. Petrie Anglican Church of England

No	75
Date of Notice	20 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Henry Pinnock	Agnes Florence Hine
BDM Match (97%)	Christopher Henry Pinnock	Agnes Florance Hine
	💍 1920/3111
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer
Age	38	37
Dwelling Place	Roseneath	Roseneath Wellington
Length of Residence	16 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St Barnabas Church Roseneath Wellington
Folio	550
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Petrie 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).