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 1910

District of Rangitikei Quarter ending 30 September 1920 Registrar James [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

4 August 1920

Stanley Garfield Friedrich
Ellen Dorothy Hansen

Fernley Garfield Friedrich
Ellen Dorothy Hansen
💍 1920/8748

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

27
20

Marton
Bonny Glen near Marton

Lifetime
Lifetime

Church of England Marton

8601

John Hansen father

4 August 1920

Rev V H Kitcat anglican

No	41
Date of Notice	4 August 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Garfield Friedrich	Ellen Dorothy Hansen
BDM Match (94%)	Fernley Garfield Friedrich	Ellen Dorothy Hansen
	💍 1920/8748
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Marton	Bonny Glen near Marton
Length of Residence	Lifetime	Lifetime
Marriage Place	Church of England Marton
Folio	8601
Consent	John Hansen father
Date of Certificate	4 August 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev V H Kitcat anglican

28 August 1920

Herbert Metcalfe Smith
Mabel Alice Dudley

Herbert Metcalfe Smith
Mabel Alice Dudley
💍 1920/8759

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk
Telephone attendant

32
24

Marton
Marton

3 days
12 years

St. Stephen's Church Marton

8602

28 August 1920

Rev V H Kitcat anglican

No	42
Date of Notice	28 August 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Metcalfe Smith	Mabel Alice Dudley
	💍 1920/8759
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk	Telephone attendant
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Marton	Marton
Length of Residence	3 days	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Stephen's Church Marton
Folio	8602
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 August 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev V H Kitcat anglican

4 September 1920

Hugh John McChesney
Edith Maud Henderson

Hugh John McChesney
Edith Maud Henderson
💍 1920/8764

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist's Assistant
Teacher

28
29

Marton
Marton

28 years
9 days

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Marton

8603

4 September 1920

Rev L H Hunt Presbyterian

No	43
Date of Notice	4 September 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh John McChesney	Edith Maud Henderson
	💍 1920/8764
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist's Assistant	Teacher
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Marton	Marton
Length of Residence	28 years	9 days
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Marton
Folio	8603
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 September 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev L H Hunt Presbyterian

4 September 1920

Vernon Carl Edward Eggers
Mabel Bertha Bosselmann

Vernon Carl Edward Eggers
Mabel Bertha Bosselmann
💍 1920/8765

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

22
20

Marton Junction
Marton Junction

6 days
20 years

Lutheran Church Marton

8604

Ernest Henry Bosselmann father

4 September 1920

Rev H H Te Punga Lutheran

No	44
Date of Notice	4 September 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vernon Carl Edward Eggers	Mabel Bertha Bosselmann
	💍 1920/8765
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Marton Junction	Marton Junction
Length of Residence	6 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Lutheran Church Marton
Folio	8604
Consent	Ernest Henry Bosselmann father
Date of Certificate	4 September 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev H H Te Punga Lutheran

4 September 1920

Edgar Humphrey Taylor
Doris Isabel Jane Parkinson

Edgar Humphrey Taylor
Doris Isabel Jane Parkinson
💍 1920/8766

Bachelor
Spinster

Schoolmaster
Domestic

26
26

Marton
Marton

3 days
26 years

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Marton

8605

13 September 1920

Rev L H Hunt Presbyterian

No	45
Date of Notice	4 September 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edgar Humphrey Taylor	Doris Isabel Jane Parkinson
	💍 1920/8766
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Schoolmaster	Domestic
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Marton	Marton
Length of Residence	3 days	26 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Marton
Folio	8605
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 September 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev L H Hunt 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).