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 2040

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

12 January 1920

William Ernest McKinstry
Agnes Newton

William Ernest McKinstry
Agnes Newton
💍 1920/2984

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
20

Wellington
Wellington

26 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington

523

William Newton (Father)

12 January 1920

Rev. J. K. Elliott (Presbyterian)

No	46
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Ernest McKinstry	Agnes Newton
	💍 1920/2984
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	26 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace, Wellington
Folio	523
Consent	William Newton (Father)
Date of Certificate	12 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott (Presbyterian)

12 January 1920

Auguste Ernest Bouillon
Dorothy Gwladys Evans

Auguste Ernest Bouillon
Dorothy Gwladys Evans
💍 1920/2985

Widower 23.7.1907
Spinster

Bank official

41
23

Auckland
Wellington

14 years
15 years

St Michael and all angels Church, Kelburn, Wellington

524

12 January 1920

Rev. A. W. Payne, Anglican (Church of England)

No	47
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Auguste Ernest Bouillon	Dorothy Gwladys Evans
	💍 1920/2985
Condition	Widower 23.7.1907	Spinster
Profession	Bank official
Age	41	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St Michael and all angels Church, Kelburn, Wellington
Folio	524
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. W. Payne, Anglican (Church of England)

12 January 1920

Albert Owen Jones
Florence Alice Jenkins

Albert Owen Jones
Florence Alice Jenkins
💍 1920/2986

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
25

Wainuiomata
Wainuiomata

5 days
18 days

St Augustine's Church, Petone

525

12 January 1920

Rev. H. Walke, Church of England (Anglican)

No	48
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Owen Jones	Florence Alice Jenkins
	💍 1920/2986
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Wainuiomata	Wainuiomata
Length of Residence	5 days	18 days
Marriage Place	St Augustine's Church, Petone
Folio	525
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Walke, Church of England (Anglican)

12 January 1920

Mark Gerald Barter
Emily Andrews

Mark Gerald Carter
Emily Andrews
💍 1920/3094

Bachelor
Widow 4.4.1915

Commercial Traveller

27
40

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
2 weeks

Registrar's office, Wellington

526

12 January 1920

Registrar

No	49
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mark Gerald Barter	Emily Andrews
BDM Match (97%)	Mark Gerald Carter	Emily Andrews
	💍 1920/3094
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 4.4.1915
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	27	40
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's office, Wellington
Folio	526
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Registrar

12 January 1920

William Harold Kent
Helen May Buick

William Harold Kent
Helen May Buick
💍 1920/3105

Bachelor
Spinster

Compositor

19
19

Tawa Flat
Porirua

2 years
12 years

Residence of Mr H. Buick, Porirua

527

As person in NZ having authority by law to give consent Henry Buick (Father)

27 January 1920

Mr C. H. Earwaker, Methodist

No	50
Date of Notice	12 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Harold Kent	Helen May Buick
	💍 1920/3105
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Compositor
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Tawa Flat	Porirua
Length of Residence	2 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr H. Buick, Porirua
Folio	527
Consent	As person in NZ having authority by law to give consent Henry Buick (Father)
Date of Certificate	27 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Mr C. H. Earwaker, Methodist

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).