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 2110

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. A. Gould

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

391

31 March 1920

Leo Ashkens
Julia Emily Thomson

Leo Ashkens
Julia Emily Thomson
💍 1920/4458

Bachelor
Spinster

Chef

55
37

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
3 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

850

31 March 1920

Registrar

No	391
Date of Notice	31 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leo Ashkens	Julia Emily Thomson
	💍 1920/4458
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chef
Age	55	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	850
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

392

31 March 1920

Sam Harry Hardy
Rhoda Dalgety Dick

Sam Harry Hardy
Rhoda Dalgety Dick
💍 1920/4469

Bachelor
Spinster

Furnishing Assistant

32
31

Kelburn
Kelburn

2 years
6 years

Presbyterian Church Kelburn Wellington

851

31 March 1920

Rev J. H. Mackenzie Presbyterian

No	392
Date of Notice	31 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sam Harry Hardy	Rhoda Dalgety Dick
	💍 1920/4469
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Furnishing Assistant
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Kelburn	Kelburn
Length of Residence	2 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kelburn Wellington
Folio	851
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J. H. Mackenzie Presbyterian

393

31 March 1920

Leslie William St. Clair
Elsie Mary Edlin

Leslie William St Clair
Elsie Mary Edlin
💍 1920/4476

Bachelor
Spinster

Chair-maker

25
21

Petone
Petone

2 years
21 years

Church of England Petone

852

31 March 1920

Rev H. A. Walke Anglican

No	393
Date of Notice	31 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie William St. Clair	Elsie Mary Edlin
BDM Match (98%)	Leslie William St Clair	Elsie Mary Edlin
	💍 1920/4476
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chair-maker
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	2 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Petone
Folio	852
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev H. A. Walke Anglican

394

31 March 1920

William Alexander Douglass
Grace Hilda Holz

William Alexander Douglass
Grace Hilda Holz
💍 1920/4477

Divorced Decree Absolute 13/6/1910
Spinster

Carpenter

41
33

Wellington
Wellington

17 years
3 years

St Andrews Church The Terrace Wellington

853

31 March 1920

Rev S. R. Orr Presbyterian

No	394
Date of Notice	31 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alexander Douglass	Grace Hilda Holz
	💍 1920/4477
Condition	Divorced Decree Absolute 13/6/1910	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	41	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Church The Terrace Wellington
Folio	853
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev S. R. Orr Presbyterian

395

31 March 1920

Denis O'Meara
Augusta Kathleen Connolly

Denis Omeara
Augusta Kathleen Connolly
💍 1920/4478

Widower 14/1/1915
Spinster

Labourer

55
45

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
20 years

St Anne's Church Newtown Wellington

854

31 March 1920

Rev J. McKenna Roman Catholic

No	395
Date of Notice	31 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis O'Meara	Augusta Kathleen Connolly
BDM Match (92%)	Denis Omeara	Augusta Kathleen Connolly
	💍 1920/4478
Condition	Widower 14/1/1915	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	55	45
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church Newtown Wellington
Folio	854
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev J. McKenna Roman Catholic

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).