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 2186

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1920 Registrar R. O. Ennes

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

460

5 July 1920

Ernest Nelson
Lilian May Rudman

Ernest Nelson
Lilian May Rudman
💍 1920/7333

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter and Paperhanger

43
20

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

Home of bridegroom's parents, Blackbridge, Lower Hutt, Wellington

6909

George Edwin Rudman, Father

5 July 1920

Rev. W. Rowe, Methodist

No	460
Date of Notice	5 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Nelson	Lilian May Rudman
	💍 1920/7333
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter and Paperhanger
Age	43	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Home of bridegroom's parents, Blackbridge, Lower Hutt, Wellington
Folio	6909
Consent	George Edwin Rudman, Father
Date of Certificate	5 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Rowe, Methodist

461

5 July 1920

Walter Herbert Kean Norton
Maude Anne Harvey

Walter Herbert Kean Horton
Maude Anne Harvey
💍 1920/7310

Bachelor
Spinster

Dentist

41
30

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
14 years

Residence of Mr A. G. Harvey, 29 Buller Street, Wellington

6910

5 July 1920

Rev. T. F. Taylor, Anglican

No	461
Date of Notice	5 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Herbert Kean Norton	Maude Anne Harvey
BDM Match (98%)	Walter Herbert Kean Horton	Maude Anne Harvey
	💍 1920/7310
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dentist
Age	41	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr A. G. Harvey, 29 Buller Street, Wellington
Folio	6910
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. F. Taylor, Anglican

462

6 July 1920

Richard Edwin Ford
Jessie Richmond

Richard Edwin Ford
Jessie Richmond
💍 1920/7311

Bachelor
Spinster

Moulder

25
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
7 years

St Anne's Church, Porirua

6911

James Bland Richmond, Father

6 July 1920

Rev. W. H. Walton, Anglican

No	462
Date of Notice	6 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Edwin Ford	Jessie Richmond
	💍 1920/7311
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Moulder
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	7 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church, Porirua
Folio	6911
Consent	James Bland Richmond, Father
Date of Certificate	6 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. H. Walton, Anglican

463

6 July 1920

Thomas Rayner Vile
Alma Therese Robeck

Thomas Rayner Vile
Alma Therese Robeck
💍 1920/7312

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

39
31

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
12 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

6912

6 July 1920

Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

No	463
Date of Notice	6 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Rayner Vile	Alma Therese Robeck
	💍 1920/7312
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	39	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	6912
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson, Anglican

464

6 July 1920

Claude Berthon Willis
Doris Irene Scott

Claude Berthon Willis
Doris Irene Scott
💍 1920/7313

Divorced Decree Absolute 2.3.1920
Spinster

Indent Clerk

38
24

Wellington
Wellington

11 years
24 years

St Johns Church, Wellington

6913

6 July 1920

Rev. J. Paterson, Presbyterian

No	464
Date of Notice	6 July 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Berthon Willis	Doris Irene Scott
	💍 1920/7313
Condition	Divorced Decree Absolute 2.3.1920	Spinster
Profession	Indent Clerk
Age	38	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St Johns Church, Wellington
Folio	6913
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 July 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson, 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).