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 2044

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

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

19 January 1920

David Love Marshall
Florence Rylands Nicholson

David Love Marshall
Florence Rylands Nicholson
💍 1920/3101

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

34
20

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
5 years

St Andrew's Church, The Terrace, Wellington

541

19 January 1920

Rev. J. H. Mackenzie (Presbyterian)

No	66
Date of Notice	19 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Love Marshall	Florence Rylands Nicholson
	💍 1920/3101
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	34	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church, The Terrace, Wellington
Folio	541
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Mackenzie (Presbyterian)

19 January 1920

William Joseph Coventry
Ida Clara Snelling

William Joseph Coventry
Ida Clara Snelling
💍 1920/3102

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

33
22

Brooklyn
Wellington

Life
Life

Methodist Church Brooklyn, Wellington

542

19 January 1920

Rev. J. H. White (Methodist)

No	67
Date of Notice	19 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Joseph Coventry	Ida Clara Snelling
	💍 1920/3102
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	33	22
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Brooklyn, Wellington
Folio	542
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. White (Methodist)

19 January 1920

Seymour Grey Thorne-George
Charlotte Maud Antoney

Seymour Grey Thorne George
Charlotte Maud Antoney
💍 1920/3103

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

39
25

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

7 days
5 days

Church of St Peter and St Paul, Lower Hutt

543

19 January 1920

Rev. M. Fitzgibbon (Roman Catholic)

No	68
Date of Notice	19 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Seymour Grey Thorne-George	Charlotte Maud Antoney
BDM Match (98%)	Seymour Grey Thorne George	Charlotte Maud Antoney
	💍 1920/3103
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	39	25
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	7 days	5 days
Marriage Place	Church of St Peter and St Paul, Lower Hutt
Folio	543
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Fitzgibbon (Roman Catholic)

19 January 1920

Gordon Taylor Latham
Nellie Hazel Tarrant

Gordon Taylor Latham
Nellie Hazel Tarrant
💍 1920/3104

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

24
19

Wellington
Miramar

7 years
5 years

St Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

544

Benjamin Tarrant (father)

19 January 1920

Rev. T. Fielden Taylor (Church of England)

No	69
Date of Notice	19 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Taylor Latham	Nellie Hazel Tarrant
	💍 1920/3104
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Miramar
Length of Residence	7 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	544
Consent	Benjamin Tarrant (father)
Date of Certificate	19 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Fielden Taylor (Church of England)

19 January 1920

Frederick William Young
Beatrice Bertha Jacobs

Frederick William Young
Beatrice Bertha Jacobs
💍 1920/3106

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

26
23

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
11 months

St Mark's Church, Wellington

545

19 January 1920

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

No	70
Date of Notice	19 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Young	Beatrice Bertha Jacobs
	💍 1920/3106
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	11 months
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	545
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. B. Page (Church of England)

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).