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 2157

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar W. W. Girdlestone

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

621

29 May 1920

Walter John Little
Agnes Ethel Mary Boden

Walter John Little
Agnes Ethel Mary Boden
💍 1920/4051

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

21
21

Petone
Petone

15 years
15 years

Baptist Church Petone

3481

29 May 1920

Rev. F. A. Parry Baptist

No	621
Date of Notice	29 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter John Little	Agnes Ethel Mary Boden
	💍 1920/4051
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	15 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Petone
Folio	3481
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. A. Parry Baptist

622

29 May 1920

Ernest Walter Gray
Nellie Beatrice Hansen

Ernest Walter Gray
Nellie Beatrice Hansen
💍 1920/4052

Bachelor
Spinster

Chef

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office Wellington

3482

29 May 1920

Deputy Registrar

No	622
Date of Notice	29 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Walter Gray	Nellie Beatrice Hansen
	💍 1920/4052
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chef
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	3482
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

623

29 May 1920

William Alfred George Myers
Mabel Isabel von Sierakowski

William Alfred George Myers
Mabel Isabel Von Sierakowski
💍 1920/12518

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 9/3/1920

Club Employee

26
23

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
1 month

St. Andrew's Church Wellington

3483

29 May 1920

Rev. S. R. Orr Presbyterian

No	623
Date of Notice	29 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alfred George Myers	Mabel Isabel von Sierakowski
BDM Match (98%)	William Alfred George Myers	Mabel Isabel Von Sierakowski
	💍 1920/12518
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 9/3/1920
Profession	Club Employee
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	1 month
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Church Wellington
Folio	3483
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr Presbyterian

624

31 May 1920

Charles Bayly
Muriel Molyneux

Charles Bayly
Muriel Molyneux
💍 1920/12519

Widower 11/11/1918
Widow 25/9/1915

Farmer

51
39

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
5 years

Unitarian Church Vivian Street Wellington

3484

31 May 1920

Rev. E. Hale Unitarian

No	624
Date of Notice	31 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Bayly	Muriel Molyneux
	💍 1920/12519
Condition	Widower 11/11/1918	Widow 25/9/1915
Profession	Farmer
Age	51	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	5 years
Marriage Place	Unitarian Church Vivian Street Wellington
Folio	3484
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Hale Unitarian

625

31 May 1920

George Shortland Younge
Margaret Richardson Cunningham

George Shortland Younge
Margaret Richardson Cunningham
💍 1920/4053

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter

31
31

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
13 years

St. Andrew's Church The Terrace Wellington

3485

31 May 1920

Rev. S. R. Orr Presbyterian

No	625
Date of Notice	31 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Shortland Younge	Margaret Richardson Cunningham
	💍 1920/4053
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	13 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Church The Terrace Wellington
Folio	3485
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr 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).