Intentions to Marry, 1858

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840370, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 13 2024

Page 165

District of ?Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1858

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

28 December 1857

Malcolm Graham
Christina Sowness

Malcolm Graham
Christina Souness
💍 1858/1500

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

21
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 years
6 years

At the residence of James Sowness, Dunedin

James Sownesss senr, Dunedin

13 January 1858

The Rev. Thomas Burns, Dunedin

No	1
Date of Notice	28 December 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Malcolm Graham	Christina Sowness
BDM Match (97%)	Malcolm Graham	Christina Souness
	💍 1858/1500
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 years	6 years
Marriage Place	At the residence of James Sowness, Dunedin
Folio
Consent	James Sownesss senr, Dunedin
Date of Certificate	13 January 1858
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Thomas Burns, Dunedin

1 February 1858

John McRae
Mary McMaster

John McRae
Mary McMaster
💍 1858/1387

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

27
19

Saddle Hill
Saddle Hill

3 years
18 months

At the residence of Allan McMaster, Saddle Hill

612

John McMaster, Saddle Hill

22 February 1858

The Rev. William Will, East Taieri

No	2
Date of Notice	1 February 1858
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McRae	Mary McMaster
	💍 1858/1387
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Saddle Hill	Saddle Hill
Length of Residence	3 years	18 months
Marriage Place	At the residence of Allan McMaster, Saddle Hill
Folio	612
Consent	John McMaster, Saddle Hill
Date of Certificate	22 February 1858
Officiating Minister	The Rev. William Will, East Taieri

20 February 1858

John Somerville
Margaret Ellis

John Somerville
Margaret Ellis
💍 1858/1503

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

23
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 days
7 days

At his own residence in Dunedin

6 March 1858

The Rev. Thomas Burns, Dunedin

No	3
Date of Notice	20 February 1858
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Somerville	Margaret Ellis
	💍 1858/1503
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 days	7 days
Marriage Place	At his own residence in Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1858
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Thomas Burns, Dunedin

4 March 1858

James Stewart
Mary Ann Ingham

James Stewart
Mary Ann Hughan
💍 1858/1485

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

25
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
2 years

At the office of the Registrar, Dunedin

3 March 1858

The Registrar, Dunedin

No	4
Date of Notice	4 March 1858
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Stewart	Mary Ann Ingham
BDM Match (90%)	James Stewart	Mary Ann Hughan
	💍 1858/1485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar, Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1858
Officiating Minister	The Registrar, Dunedin

Joseph Antone
Agnes Mathie

Joseph Antoine
Agnes Mathie
💍 1858/1450

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

30
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
3 months

At the Episcopal Church, Dunedin

6 March 1858

The Rev. John Albert, Fenton, Dunedin

No	5
Date of Notice
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Antone	Agnes Mathie
BDM Match (96%)	Joseph Antoine	Agnes Mathie
	💍 1858/1450
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	3 months
Marriage Place	At the Episcopal Church, Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1858
Officiating Minister	The Rev. John Albert, Fenton, Dunedin

22 March 1858

Walter John Dare
Sarah Rowen

Walter John Dare
Sarah Rowen
💍 1858/1488

Bachelor
Spinster

Gentleman

32
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 months
4 months

At the office of the Registrar, Dunedin

22 March 1858

The Registrar, Dunedin

No	6
Date of Notice	22 March 1858
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter John Dare	Sarah Rowen
	💍 1858/1488
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gentleman
Age	32	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 months	4 months
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar, Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1858
Officiating Minister	The Registrar, Dunedin

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 1903. 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).