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 2193

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

495

13 July 1920

Ralph Pearson
Evelyn Hope Hamilton

Ralph Pearson
Evelyn Hope Hamilton
💍 1920/7268

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

29
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 years

St Mark's Church, Wellington

6943

13 July 1920

Rev. A. T. B. Page, Anglican

No	495
Date of Notice	13 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ralph Pearson	Evelyn Hope Hamilton
	💍 1920/7268
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	6943
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. B. Page, Anglican

496

13 July 1920

Herbert Norman Lambert
Gladys Muriel Dawe

Herbert Norman Lambert
Gladys Muriel Dawe
💍 1920/7269

Bachelor
Spinster

Customs Clerk

21
24

Wellington
Wellington

21 years
24 years

St Mark's Church, Wellington

6944

13 July 1920

Rev. A. T. B. Page, Anglican

No	496
Date of Notice	13 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Norman Lambert	Gladys Muriel Dawe
	💍 1920/7269
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Customs Clerk
Age	21	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	6944
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. B. Page, Anglican

497

13 July 1920

John Porteous Blyth
Daisy Olive Maslin

John Porteous Blyth
Daisy Olive Maslin
💍 1920/7271

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

37
20

Petone
Petone

3 days
3 days

Residence of Mr T. Blyth, 9 Britannia Street, Petone

6945

Caleb Jesse Maslin, Father

13 July 1920

Rev. J. H. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	497
Date of Notice	13 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Porteous Blyth	Daisy Olive Maslin
	💍 1920/7271
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	37	20
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr T. Blyth, 9 Britannia Street, Petone
Folio	6945
Consent	Caleb Jesse Maslin, Father
Date of Certificate	13 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. McKenzie, Presbyterian

498

13 July 1920

Ernest Bristol
Ivy Broomfield Thomas

Ernest Bristol
Ivy Broomfields Thomas
💍 1920/7272

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

33
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 months

Presbyterian Church, Kilbirnie, Wellington

6946

13 July 1920

Rev. W. J. Comrie, Presbyterian

No	498
Date of Notice	13 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Bristol	Ivy Broomfield Thomas
BDM Match (98%)	Ernest Bristol	Ivy Broomfields Thomas
	💍 1920/7272
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kilbirnie, Wellington
Folio	6946
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Comrie, Presbyterian

499

13 July 1920

Leslie George Wakefield
Florence Mary Gray

Leslie George Wakefield
Florence Mary Gray
💍 1920/7273

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

31
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St Peter's Church, Wellington

6947

13 July 1920

Rev. T. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	499
Date of Notice	13 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie George Wakefield	Florence Mary Gray
	💍 1920/7273
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	6947
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. F. Taylor, Anglican

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).