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 2069

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. G. Ennos

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

191

14 February 1920

Albert Raymond Mailman
Mary Rita Rankin

Albert Raymond Mailman
Mary Rita Rankin
💍 1920/3145

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

19
18

Wellington
Karori

4 years
18 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

660

Alfred Eaton Mailman father, John Alexander Rankin Father

14 February 1920

Registrar

No	191
Date of Notice	14 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Raymond Mailman	Mary Rita Rankin
	💍 1920/3145
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	19	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Karori
Length of Residence	4 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	660
Consent	Alfred Eaton Mailman father, John Alexander Rankin Father
Date of Certificate	14 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

192

14 February 1920

Peter John Brown
Marguerite Marie Manson

Peter John Brown
Marguerite Marie Manson
💍 1920/35

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

35
35

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
2 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

661

14 February 1920

Registrar

No	192
Date of Notice	14 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter John Brown	Marguerite Marie Manson
	💍 1920/35
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	35	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	661
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

193

16 February 1920

Joseph Clifford Bradley
Clara Margaret McGuire

Joseph Clifford Bradley
Clara Margaret McGuire
💍 1920/3147

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

26
23

Petone
Island Bay

26 years
23 years

St. James' Church Wellington South

662

16 February 1920

Rev. W. Shirer Presbyterian

No	193
Date of Notice	16 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Clifford Bradley	Clara Margaret McGuire
	💍 1920/3147
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Petone	Island Bay
Length of Residence	26 years	23 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church Wellington South
Folio	662
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer Presbyterian

194

16 February 1920

George Hamill
Olive Mary McLean

George Hamill
Olive Mary McLean
💍 1920/3148

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
22

Wellington
Wellington

16 years
22 years

Residence of Mrs J McLean 46 McFarlane Street Wellington

663

16 February 1920

Rev. J. K. Elliott Presbyterian

No	194
Date of Notice	16 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Hamill	Olive Mary McLean
	💍 1920/3148
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs J McLean 46 McFarlane Street Wellington
Folio	663
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott Presbyterian

195

16 February 1920

David McCormick
Mary Twaddle Pettigrew

David McCormick
Mary Twaddle Pettigrew
💍 1920/3149

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

30
34

Wellington
Hataitai

9 months
6 years

Presbyterian Church Kilbirnie Wellington

664

16 February 1920

Rev. H. Beggs Presbyterian

No	195
Date of Notice	16 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David McCormick	Mary Twaddle Pettigrew
	💍 1920/3149
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	30	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Hataitai
Length of Residence	9 months	6 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kilbirnie Wellington
Folio	664
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Beggs 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).