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 2095

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. P. Evans

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

316

15 March 1920

Frank Paterson
Margaret Mary Murphy

Frank Paterson
Margaret Mary Murphy
💍 1920/4432

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter & Joiner

33
31

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
8 years

St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

783

15 March 1920

Rev. J. Bowe, Roman Catholic

No	316
Date of Notice	15 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Paterson	Margaret Mary Murphy
	💍 1920/4432
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter & Joiner
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	783
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Bowe, Roman Catholic

317

16 March 1920

Robert Clark Finlay
Margaret Elliott

Robert Clark Finlay
Margaret Elliott
💍 1920/4433

Bachelor
Spinster

Lithographer

32
31

Wellington
Newtown

3 days
31 years Wellington

Baptist Church Berhampore Wellington

784

16 March 1920

Rev. T. K. Ewen, Baptist

No	317
Date of Notice	16 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Clark Finlay	Margaret Elliott
	💍 1920/4433
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lithographer
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Newtown
Length of Residence	3 days	31 years Wellington
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Berhampore Wellington
Folio	784
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. K. Ewen, Baptist

318

16 March 1920

Harry Tannahill Smith
Eileen May Carroll

Harry Tannahill Smith
Eileen May Carroll
💍 1920/4410

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
3 years Buckle Street Wellington

Roman Catholic Church Buckle Street Wellington

785

16 March 1920

Rev. J. F. O'Connor, Roman Catholic

No	318
Date of Notice	16 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Tannahill Smith	Eileen May Carroll
	💍 1920/4410
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	3 years Buckle Street Wellington
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	785
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. O'Connor, Roman Catholic

319

16 March 1920

Frank Morris
Jessie Paris

Frank Morris
Jessie Paris
💍 1920/4411

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

45
39

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
12 years Wellington

Registrar's Office Wellington

786

16 March 1920

Registrar

No	319
Date of Notice	16 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Morris	Jessie Paris
	💍 1920/4411
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	45	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	12 years Wellington
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	786
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

320

16 March 1920

Sydney Adamson
Jane Nicol Milne

Sydney Adamson
Jane Nicol Milne
💍 1920/4412

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

32
30

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
7 years Petone

Presbyterian Church Petone

787

16 March 1920

Rev. J. A. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	320
Date of Notice	16 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Adamson	Jane Nicol Milne
	💍 1920/4412
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	7 years Petone
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Petone
Folio	787
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. McKenzie, Presbyterian

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).