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 2195

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1920 Registrar R. P. Ward

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

805

14 July 1920

John Driscoll
Queenie Sarah Alice Wood

John Driscoll
Queenie Sarah Alice Wood
💍 1920/5992

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

34
25

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
5 years

Residence of Mrs Hepburn, 65 Rintoul Street, Wellington

6952

14 July 1920

Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

No	805
Date of Notice	14 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Driscoll	Queenie Sarah Alice Wood
	💍 1920/5992
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	34	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Hepburn, 65 Rintoul Street, Wellington
Folio	6952
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

806

15 July 1920

William Pyott Johnston
Mary Robertson McLaws

William Pyott Johnston
Mary Robertson McLaws
💍 1920/5999

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

25
22

Wellington
S.S. "Mahana"

1 year
7 weeks

St Davids Church, Petone

6953

15 July 1920

Rev. J. A. McKenzie, Presbyterian

No	806
Date of Notice	15 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Pyott Johnston	Mary Robertson McLaws
	💍 1920/5999
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	S.S. "Mahana"
Length of Residence	1 year	7 weeks
Marriage Place	St Davids Church, Petone
Folio	6953
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. McKenzie, Presbyterian

807

15 July 1920

John McIntosh Ogilvie
Marjorie Evelyn George

John McIntosh Ogilvie
Marjorie Evelyn George
💍 1920/6000

Bachelor
Spinster

Messenger and Porter

34
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
4 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

6954

15 July 1920

Registrar

No	807
Date of Notice	15 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McIntosh Ogilvie	Marjorie Evelyn George
	💍 1920/6000
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Messenger and Porter
Age	34	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	6954
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

808

15 July 1920

Rizk Alexander
Dorothy Mary Khouri

Rizk Alexander
Dorothy Mary Khouri
💍 1920/6001

Bachelor
Spinster

Indent Agent

22
19

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
Life

The Basilica, Hill street, Wellington

6955

Robert Stout, Chief Justice of New Zealand (sec. 20 Marr. Act)

15 July 1920

Rev. T. L. Dignan, Roman Catholic

No	808
Date of Notice	15 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rizk Alexander	Dorothy Mary Khouri
	💍 1920/6001
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Indent Agent
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	Life
Marriage Place	The Basilica, Hill street, Wellington
Folio	6955
Consent	Robert Stout, Chief Justice of New Zealand (sec. 20 Marr. Act)
Date of Certificate	15 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. L. Dignan, Roman Catholic

809

16 July 1920

Sidney George Claredon Isherwood
Ivy Barbara Siddells

Sidney George Claredon Isherwood
Ivy Barbara Siddells
💍 1920/6002

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
28

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
4 months

Presbyterian Church, Khandallah

6956

16 July 1920

Rev. D. J. A. Shaw, Presbyterian

No	809
Date of Notice	16 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney George Claredon Isherwood	Ivy Barbara Siddells
	💍 1920/6002
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	4 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Khandallah
Folio	6956
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. J. A. Shaw, 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).