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 2050

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

27 January 1920

Charles Henry Duck
Ivy Maud Kearse

Charles Henry Duck
Ivy Maud Kearse
💍 1920/3081

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

17 years
7 years

St Mark's Church, Wellington

570

27 January 1920

Rev. A. T. B. Page, Anglican (Church of England)

No	96
Date of Notice	27 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Duck	Ivy Maud Kearse
	💍 1920/3081
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	570
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. B. Page, Anglican (Church of England)

27 January 1920

Ernest Griffin
Isabel Mary Kerby

Ernest Griffin
Isabel Mary Kerby
💍 1920/3082

Bachelor
Widow 14/8/1912

Builder

31
31

Karori
Karori

3 years
5 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

571

27 January 1920

Registrar

No	97
Date of Notice	27 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Griffin	Isabel Mary Kerby
	💍 1920/3082
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 14/8/1912
Profession	Builder
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Karori	Karori
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	571
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

27 January 1920

David Henry Burrin
Frances Alice Hawker

David Henry Currin
Frances Alice Hawker
💍 1920/3083

Bachelor
Widow 12/11/1918

Foreman

36
40

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
3 days

Residence of Mr D. H. Burrin, 14 Malcolm Lane, Wellington

572

27 January 1920

Rev. A. Reader, Methodist

No	98
Date of Notice	27 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Henry Burrin	Frances Alice Hawker
BDM Match (97%)	David Henry Currin	Frances Alice Hawker
	💍 1920/3083
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 12/11/1918
Profession	Foreman
Age	36	40
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr D. H. Burrin, 14 Malcolm Lane, Wellington
Folio	572
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Reader, Methodist

28 January 1920

Alfred Thomas Melrose Church
Idela Madelene Wales

Alfred Thomas Melrose Church
Idela Madelene Wales
💍 1920/3084

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer

29
22

Newtown
Newtown

29 years
12 years

St Thomas' Church, Newtown, Wellington

573

28 January 1920

Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican (Church of England)

No	99
Date of Notice	28 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Thomas Melrose Church	Idela Madelene Wales
	💍 1920/3084
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Newtown	Newtown
Length of Residence	29 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St Thomas' Church, Newtown, Wellington
Folio	573
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt, Anglican (Church of England)

100

28 January 1920

William Henry Darby
Annie Margaret Olsen

William Henry Darby
Annie Margaret Olsen
💍 1920/3085

Bachelor
Spinster

Foreman Stevedore

27
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
7 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

574

28 January 1920

Registrar

No	100
Date of Notice	28 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Darby	Annie Margaret Olsen
	💍 1920/3085
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Foreman Stevedore
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	7 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	574
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).