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 2034

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar R. L. [illegible]

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

5 January 1920

Alfred Edward Stockbridge
Maria Stratton

Alfred Edward Stockbridge
Maria Stratton
💍 1920/3053

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

24
20

Brooklyn
Lower Hutt

24 years
20 years

St John's Church Lower Hutt

493

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

20 January 1920

Ven. Arch. W. G. Baker Anglican

No	16
Date of Notice	5 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Edward Stockbridge	Maria Stratton
	💍 1920/3053
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Brooklyn	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	24 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church Lower Hutt
Folio	493
Consent	No person in N.Z. having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Ven. Arch. W. G. Baker Anglican

6 January 1920

James Bull
Ethel May Muir

James Bull
Ethel May Muir
💍 1920/3054

Bachelor
Spinster

Military Pensioner

25
24

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

1 month
2 weeks

Knox Church Lower Hutt

494

6 January 1920

Rev. J. McCaw (Presbyterian)

No	17
Date of Notice	6 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Bull	Ethel May Muir
	💍 1920/3054
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Military Pensioner
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	1 month	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Knox Church Lower Hutt
Folio	494
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McCaw (Presbyterian)

6 January 1920

Gilbert Walter Frederick Morley
Isabel Rosina Lawton

Gilbert Walter Frederick Morley
Mabel Rosina Lawton
💍 1920/3056

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

21
18

Wellington
Island Bay

4 years
18 years

St Mark's Church Wellington

495

William James Lawton (Father)

6 January 1920

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

No	18
Date of Notice	6 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Walter Frederick Morley	Isabel Rosina Lawton
BDM Match (95%)	Gilbert Walter Frederick Morley	Mabel Rosina Lawton
	💍 1920/3056
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Island Bay
Length of Residence	4 years	18 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	495
Consent	William James Lawton (Father)
Date of Certificate	6 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. T. B. Page Anglican Church of England

6 January 1920

Edward Joseph McQuillan
Monica Mary McDonnell

Edward Joseph McQuillan
Monica Mary McDonnell
💍 1920/3057

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

28
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
3 months

The Basilica Hill Street Wellington

496

6 January 1920

Rev. J. Z. Dignan (Roman Catholic)

No	19
Date of Notice	6 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Joseph McQuillan	Monica Mary McDonnell
	💍 1920/3057
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	The Basilica Hill Street Wellington
Folio	496
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Z. Dignan (Roman Catholic)

6 January 1920

Albert Hamilton Tocker
Mary Helen Sievwright

Albert Hamilton Tocker
Mary Helen Sievwright
💍 1920/3058

Bachelor
Spinster

Teacher

35
21

Wellington
Wellington

7 days (New arrival from abroad)
20 years

St Andrew's Church The Terrace Wellington

497

6 January 1920

Rev. C. J. Tocker (Presbyterian)

No	20
Date of Notice	6 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Hamilton Tocker	Mary Helen Sievwright
	💍 1920/3058
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teacher
Age	35	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days (New arrival from abroad)	20 years
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church The Terrace Wellington
Folio	497
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. J. Tocker (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).