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 2038

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. G. 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

8 January 1920

Dugald Stewart
Blanche Pearl Isobel Stone

Dugald Stewart
Blanche Pearle Isobel Stone
💍 1920/2973

Widower 25:11:1918
Spinster

Accountant

37
29

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
6 months

St Marks Church Wellington

513

8 January 1920

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

No	36
Date of Notice	8 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Dugald Stewart	Blanche Pearl Isobel Stone
BDM Match (98%)	Dugald Stewart	Blanche Pearle Isobel Stone
	💍 1920/2973
Condition	Widower 25:11:1918	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	37	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	6 months
Marriage Place	St Marks Church Wellington
Folio	513
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A.T.B. Page Anglican Church (Church of England)

8 January 1920

Herbert Gill
Phyllis Stemmer

Herbert Gill
Phyllis Stemmer
💍 1920/2974

Bachelor
Spinster

Showman

39
24

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
1 year

Registrar's office Wellington

514

8 January 1920

Registrar

No	37
Date of Notice	8 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Gill	Phyllis Stemmer
	💍 1920/2974
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Showman
Age	39	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Registrar's office Wellington
Folio	514
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

9 January 1920

Denis Keenan
Frances Elizabeth Baldwin

Denis Keenan
Frances Elizabeth Baldwin
💍 1920/2975

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

24
24

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
10 years

St John's Church Wellington

515

9 January 1920

Rev. H.W. Burridge (Presbyterian)

No	38
Date of Notice	9 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis Keenan	Frances Elizabeth Baldwin
	💍 1920/2975
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church Wellington
Folio	515
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H.W. Burridge (Presbyterian)

9 January 1920

Harold James Tisdall Pollock
Gladys Irene Llewellyn

Harold James Tisdale Pollock
Gladys Irene Flewellyn
💍 1920/2976

Bachelor
Spinster

Traveller

31
29

Wellington
Wellington

31 years
5 weeks

St Mark's Church Wellington

516

9 January 1920

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

No	39
Date of Notice	9 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold James Tisdall Pollock	Gladys Irene Llewellyn
BDM Match (96%)	Harold James Tisdale Pollock	Gladys Irene Flewellyn
	💍 1920/2976
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Traveller
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	31 years	5 weeks
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	516
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev A.T.B. Page Anglican Church (Church of England)

10 January 1920

Malcolm Hubart Howard
Gertrude Higginbottom

Malcolm Hubart Howard
Gertrude Higginbottom
💍 1920/2977

Bachelor
Spinster

Motorman

34
31

Wellington
Wellington South

15 years
31 years

St James's Manse Wellington South

517

10 January 1920

Rev. W. Shirer (Presbyterian)

No	40
Date of Notice	10 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Malcolm Hubart Howard	Gertrude Higginbottom
	💍 1920/2977
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motorman
Age	34	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington South
Length of Residence	15 years	31 years
Marriage Place	St James's Manse Wellington South
Folio	517
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer (Presbyterian)

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).