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 2043

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

16 January 1920

William Alexander Munro
Clara Evelyn Wilson

William Alexander Munro
Clara Evelyn Wilson
💍 1920/3096

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman

21
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 weeks

Residence of Mr. H. S. Wilson, 92 Owen Street, Wellington

536

Lilly Annie Wilson (Mother)

16 January 1920

Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

No	61
Date of Notice	16 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alexander Munro	Clara Evelyn Wilson
	💍 1920/3096
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. H. S. Wilson, 92 Owen Street, Wellington
Folio	536
Consent	Lilly Annie Wilson (Mother)
Date of Certificate	16 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

16 January 1920

Frederic Vaughan Evans
Ellen Moreland

Frederic Vaughan Evans
Ellen Moreland
💍 1920/3097

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

25
23

Trentham
Korokoro

5 months
16 years

St James' Church, Lower Hutt

537

16 January 1920

Ven Arch W. G. Baker, Anglican (Church of England)

No	62
Date of Notice	16 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederic Vaughan Evans	Ellen Moreland
	💍 1920/3097
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Korokoro
Length of Residence	5 months	16 years
Marriage Place	St James' Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	537
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Ven Arch W. G. Baker, Anglican (Church of England)

16 January 1920

Jules Mark Maurice Easton Simon
Clarice Kathleen Nash

Jules Mark Clauvis Easton Simon
Clarice Kathleen Nash
💍 1920/3098

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
26 years

St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

538

16 January 1920

Rev. D. H. Hurley (Roman Catholic)

No	63
Date of Notice	16 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jules Mark Maurice Easton Simon	Clarice Kathleen Nash
BDM Match (92%)	Jules Mark Clauvis Easton Simon	Clarice Kathleen Nash
	💍 1920/3098
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	26 years
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	538
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. H. Hurley (Roman Catholic)

17 January 1920

John Hurrell
May Lillian Swain

John Hurrell
May Lilian Swain
💍 1920/3099

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineering Draughtsman

24
25

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

2 years
7 days

Residence of A. E. Hurrell, Queen's Road, Lower Hutt

539

17 January 1920

Rev. S. J. Murray (Methodist)

No	64
Date of Notice	17 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hurrell	May Lillian Swain
BDM Match (97%)	John Hurrell	May Lilian Swain
	💍 1920/3099
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineering Draughtsman
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	2 years	7 days
Marriage Place	Residence of A. E. Hurrell, Queen's Road, Lower Hutt
Folio	539
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. J. Murray (Methodist)

19 January 1920

Percy Leonard Booth
Marion Coomber

Percy Leonard Booth
Marion Coomber
💍 1920/3100

Widower 25:9:1911
Widow 20:11:1918

Barber

34
41

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
2 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

540

19 January 1920

Registrar (Wellington)

No	65
Date of Notice	19 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Leonard Booth	Marion Coomber
	💍 1920/3100
Condition	Widower 25:9:1911	Widow 20:11:1918
Profession	Barber
Age	34	41
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	540
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar (Wellington)

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).