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 2052

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. C. Evans

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

106

29 January 1920

Walter Clayton
Alice Beatrice Sanders

Walter Clayton
Alice Beatrice Sanders
💍 1920/4303

Bachelor
Spinster

Market Gardener

23
25

Lower Hutt
Wellington

12 years
18 years

St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington

570

29 January 1920

Rev. F. F. Taylor, Anglican Church of England

No	106
Date of Notice	29 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Clayton	Alice Beatrice Sanders
	💍 1920/4303
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Market Gardener
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	18 years
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington
Folio	570
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. F. Taylor, Anglican Church of England

107

29 January 1920

William Taylor Lowe
Doris Shelker

William Taylor Lowe
Doris Shelker
💍 1920/4304

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

24
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

The Manse 224 Adelaide Road Wellington

580

No person in N.Z. having authority by law to give consent.

13 February 1920

Rev. G. K. Smith, (Methodist)

No	107
Date of Notice	29 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Taylor Lowe	Doris Shelker
	💍 1920/4304
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	The Manse 224 Adelaide Road Wellington
Folio	580
Consent	No person in N.Z. having authority by law to give consent.
Date of Certificate	13 February 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Smith, (Methodist)

108

29 January 1920

Noble Walker
Elizabeth Travis

Noble Walker
Elizabeth Travis
💍 1920/4305

Bachelor
Spinster

Road contractor

31
34

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 day (arrived from overseas)

St Mary of all Angels Boulcott Street Wellington

581

29 January 1920

Rev. D. L. Quinn, (Roman Catholic)

No	108
Date of Notice	29 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Noble Walker	Elizabeth Travis
	💍 1920/4305
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Road contractor
Age	31	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 day (arrived from overseas)
Marriage Place	St Mary of all Angels Boulcott Street Wellington
Folio	581
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. L. Quinn, (Roman Catholic)

109

29 January 1920

Chung Yow Wong
Soon Wha Wong

Chung You Wong
Soon Wha Wong
💍 1920/4306

Previously married in China 15 years ago
Previously married in China 15 years ago

Fruiterer

45
34

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
8 days

Residence of Mrs Wong 4 Mortimer Terrace Wellington

582

29 January 1920

Rev. J. K. Elliott, (Presbyterian)

No	109
Date of Notice	29 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Chung Yow Wong	Soon Wha Wong
BDM Match (96%)	Chung You Wong	Soon Wha Wong
	💍 1920/4306
Condition	Previously married in China 15 years ago	Previously married in China 15 years ago
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	45	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	8 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Wong 4 Mortimer Terrace Wellington
Folio	582
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott, (Presbyterian)

110

29 January 1920

Thomas Boyce
Ruth Ann Ritson

Thomas Boyce
Ruth Ann Ritson
💍 1920/4307

Bachelor
Spinster

Surveyor's Assistant

31
36

Wellington
Karori

Life
Life

The Basilica Hill Street Wellington

583

29 January 1920

Rev. P. J. Smyth, (Roman Catholic)

No	110
Date of Notice	29 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Boyce	Ruth Ann Ritson
	💍 1920/4307
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surveyor's Assistant
Age	31	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Karori
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	The Basilica Hill Street Wellington
Folio	583
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Smyth, (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).