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 2055

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

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

121

30 January 1920

Allen Seymour Ross
Frances Patricia Miller

Allen Seymour Ross
Frances Patricia Miller
💍 1920/4294

Bachelor
Widow

Steward

29
37

Wellington
Miramar

6 months
2 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

594

30 January 1920

Deputy Registrar

No	121
Date of Notice	30 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allen Seymour Ross	Frances Patricia Miller
	💍 1920/4294
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Steward
Age	29	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Miramar
Length of Residence	6 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	594
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

122

30 January 1920

William Treloar
Ellen Mary Coburn

William Treloar
Ellen Mary Coburn
💍 1920/4296

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

35
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
4 days

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

595

30 January 1920

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican Church of England

No	122
Date of Notice	30 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Treloar	Ellen Mary Coburn
	💍 1920/4296
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	4 days
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	595
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, Anglican Church of England

123

31 January 1920

John Macdonald Russell
Maud Eleanor Malcolm

John Macdonald Russell
Maud Eleanor Malcolm
💍 1920/4297

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

31
28

Brooklyn
Brooklyn, Wellington

30 years
10 years

St. Matthew's church, Brooklyn, Wellington

596

31 January 1920

Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican Church of England

No	123
Date of Notice	31 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Macdonald Russell	Maud Eleanor Malcolm
	💍 1920/4297
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Brooklyn, Wellington
Length of Residence	30 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's church, Brooklyn, Wellington
Folio	596
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican Church of England

124

31 January 1920

Arthur Jagger
Dorothy Elizabeth Gwendoline Leetch

Arthur Jagger
Dorothy Elizabeth Gwendoline Leetch
💍 1920/4298

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Contractor

30
28

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
3 days

Church of England, Brooklyn, Wellington

597

31 January 1920

Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican Church of England

No	124
Date of Notice	31 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Jagger	Dorothy Elizabeth Gwendoline Leetch
	💍 1920/4298
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Contractor
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Church of England, Brooklyn, Wellington
Folio	597
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican Church of England

125

31 January 1920

Arthur Thompson Stone
Eva May Porter

Arthur Thompson Stone
Eva May Porter
💍 1920/4299

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

32
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
7 years

St. James' Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington

598

31 January 1920

Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

No	125
Date of Notice	31 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Thompson Stone	Eva May Porter
	💍 1920/4299
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	7 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	598
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

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).