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 2201

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1920 Registrar R. E. Bennetts

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

835

20 July 1920

Lindsay Bernard Taylor
Mary McDowall Flood

Lindsay Bernard Taylor
Mary McDowall Hood
💍 1920/9942

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer

25
23

Wellington
Wellington

8 days
3 days

St Andrew's Church, Wellington

12084

20 July 1920

Rev. D. R. Orr, Presbyterian

No	835
Date of Notice	20 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lindsay Bernard Taylor	Mary McDowall Flood
BDM Match (95%)	Lindsay Bernard Taylor	Mary McDowall Hood
	💍 1920/9942
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church, Wellington
Folio	12084
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. R. Orr, Presbyterian

836

20 July 1920

Joseph Burton
Florence Slater

Joseph Burton
Florence Slater
💍 1920/6028

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheese-maker

30
31

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
3 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

6982

20 July 1920

Registrar

No	836
Date of Notice	20 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Burton	Florence Slater
	💍 1920/6028
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheese-maker
Age	30	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	6982
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

837

20 July 1920

Francis Norcott Hornibrook
Tryphena Tanner

Francis Norcott Hornibrook
Tryphena Tanner
💍 1920/6029

Bachelor
Spinster

Architect

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

6 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

6983

20 July 1920

Registrar

No	837
Date of Notice	20 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Norcott Hornibrook	Tryphena Tanner
	💍 1920/6029
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Architect
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	6983
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

838

20 July 1920

Stanley Naylor
Audrey Pretoria Tapp

Stanley Naylor
Audrey Pretoria Tapp
💍 1920/6030

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

24
19

Blenheim
Wellington

3 weeks
1 year

St Matthew's Church, Brooklyn, Wellington

6984

Clara Louisa Tapp, Mother

20 July 1920

Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

No	838
Date of Notice	20 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Naylor	Audrey Pretoria Tapp
	💍 1920/6030
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Blenheim	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 weeks	1 year
Marriage Place	St Matthew's Church, Brooklyn, Wellington
Folio	6984
Consent	Clara Louisa Tapp, Mother
Date of Certificate	20 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. W. Dent, Anglican

839

21 July 1920

Henry Alexander Newing Catanach
Margaret Ann Mackay

Henry Alexander Newing Catanach
Margaret Ann MacKay
💍 1920/6007

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist

24
25

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
3 days

St John's Church, Wellington

6985

21 July 1920

Rev. H. W. Burridge, Presbyterian

No	839
Date of Notice	21 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Alexander Newing Catanach	Margaret Ann Mackay
BDM Match (97%)	Henry Alexander Newing Catanach	Margaret Ann MacKay
	💍 1920/6007
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Wellington
Folio	6985
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. W. Burridge, 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).