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 2106

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. C. O'Connor

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

371

29 March 1920

William Tremere Foster
Alma Isabelle Kinnear

William Tremere Foster
Alma Isabelle Kinnear
💍 1920/4457

Widower 11/9/1911
Spinster

Teacher

33
19

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
12 years

St Andrew's Church, The Terrace, Wellington

834

Alexander Ayton Kinnear Father

29 March 1920

Rev. S. R. Orr, Presbyterian

No	371
Date of Notice	29 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Tremere Foster	Alma Isabelle Kinnear
	💍 1920/4457
Condition	Widower 11/9/1911	Spinster
Profession	Teacher
Age	33	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church, The Terrace, Wellington
Folio	834
Consent	Alexander Ayton Kinnear Father
Date of Certificate	29 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. R. Orr, Presbyterian

372

29 March 1920

Henry Crabtree Frost
Jessie Muir Wilson

Henry Crabtree Frost
Jessie Muir Wilson
💍 1920/4435

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

33
34

Kelburn
Kelburn

7 days
30 years

St John's Church, Wellington

835

29 March 1920

Rev. H. W. Burridge, Presbyterian

No	372
Date of Notice	29 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Crabtree Frost	Jessie Muir Wilson
	💍 1920/4435
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	33	34
Dwelling Place	Kelburn	Kelburn
Length of Residence	7 days	30 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Wellington
Folio	835
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. W. Burridge, Presbyterian

373

29 March 1920

Frank Hawthorne Perry
Lucy Ross

Frank Hawthorne Perry
Lucy Ross
💍 1920/3918

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

29
19

Miramar
Miramar

26 years
8 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

3178

No person in NZ having authority by law to give consent

13 April 1920

Registrar

No	373
Date of Notice	29 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Hawthorne Perry	Lucy Ross
	💍 1920/3918
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	29	19
Dwelling Place	Miramar	Miramar
Length of Residence	26 years	8 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	3178
Consent	No person in NZ having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	13 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

374

29 March 1920

Felix Ernest James
Nora Brosnahan

Felix Ernest James
Nora Brosnahan
💍 1920/5495

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

33
35

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
7 years

St Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington

3176

29 March 1920

Rev. S. Mahony, Roman Catholic

No	374
Date of Notice	29 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Felix Ernest James	Nora Brosnahan
	💍 1920/5495
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	33	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	3176
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Mahony, Roman Catholic

375

29 March 1920

James Fowler Gordon
Isabella Allison Hess

James Fowler Gordon
Isabella Allison Ness
💍 1920/4436

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer

27
22

Wellington
Wellington

4 months
1 month

The Vestry, St James' Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington

836

29 March 1920

Rev. W. Shirer, Presbyterian

No	375
Date of Notice	29 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Fowler Gordon	Isabella Allison Hess
BDM Match (98%)	James Fowler Gordon	Isabella Allison Ness
	💍 1920/4436
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	1 month
Marriage Place	The Vestry, St James' Church, Adelaide Road, Wellington
Folio	836
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer, 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).