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 2073

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

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

211

20 February 1920

Charles Edward Cross
Alice McAneny

Charles Edward Cross
Alice McAneny
💍 1920/4329

Widower 15-11-1918
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

35
35

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
12 years

St John's Church Wellington

680

20 February 1920

Rev H. W. Burridge, Presbyterian

No	211
Date of Notice	20 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Cross	Alice McAneny
	💍 1920/4329
Condition	Widower 15-11-1918	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	35	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	12 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church Wellington
Folio	680
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev H. W. Burridge, Presbyterian

212

20 February 1920

Maurice Sutherland
Florence Sanders

Maurice Sutherland
Florence Sanders
💍 1920/4330

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk

22
23

Ngaio
Wellington

12 months
18 years

St John's Church Wellington

681

20 February 1920

Rev H. W. Burridge, Presbyterian

No	212
Date of Notice	20 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Maurice Sutherland	Florence Sanders
	💍 1920/4330
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Ngaio	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	18 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church Wellington
Folio	681
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev H. W. Burridge, Presbyterian

213

20 February 1920

Reginald Francis Bishop
Oreti Jean Chisholm

Reginald Francis Bishop
Oreti Jean Chisholm
💍 1920/4331

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

33
20

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

Methodist Church Taranaki Street Wellington

682

John Arthur Daniel Chisholm, Father

20 February 1920

Rev J. G. Chapman, Methodist

No	213
Date of Notice	20 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Francis Bishop	Oreti Jean Chisholm
	💍 1920/4331
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	33	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	682
Consent	John Arthur Daniel Chisholm, Father
Date of Certificate	20 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J. G. Chapman, Methodist

214

20 February 1920

Joseph Winstanley
Adelaide Grace Hayes

Joseph Winstanley
Adelaide Grace Hayes
💍 1920/4332

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

21
23

Mitchelltown
Newtown

8 years
Life

St Anne's Church Newtown Wellington

683

20 February 1920

Very Rev Dean McKenna, Roman Catholic

No	214
Date of Notice	20 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Winstanley	Adelaide Grace Hayes
	💍 1920/4332
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Mitchelltown	Newtown
Length of Residence	8 years	Life
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	683
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Very Rev Dean McKenna, Roman Catholic

215

21 February 1920

Ronald Tawhiao Whittaker
Nellie Mary Grimmitt

Ronald Tawhiao Whittaker
Nellie Mary Grimmitt
💍 1920/4333

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

24
25

Brooklyn
Brooklyn

6 months
3 weeks

St Matthew's Church Brooklyn Wellington

684

21 February 1920

Rev G W Dent, Anglican

No	215
Date of Notice	21 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ronald Tawhiao Whittaker	Nellie Mary Grimmitt
	💍 1920/4333
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Brooklyn
Length of Residence	6 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church Brooklyn Wellington
Folio	684
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev G W Dent, Anglican

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).