suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Keen
Given names: 
Janet
Given address: 
South Oamaru
Sheet No: 294
Town/Suburb: 
Oamaru
City/Region: 
Otago
Notes: 

Biography contributed by great granddaughter, Helen M. Laney

Janet, née Porteous was born at 9.30pm on the 26 July 1855 at Calder’s Land, Langloan, Middle District of Old Monkland, County of Lanark, Scotland. She was the eighth child of Barbara, née Brown, and Robert Porteous.

On the 26 December 1875 she arrived in Port Chalmers, New Zealand, along with her parents and three siblings, Elizabeth, George and Barbara on the ship Nelson. Four of her siblings had died in Scotland before the family emigrated, two were married and remained in Scotland, and another two were married and living in the United states of America. Janet was 19 years old when she arrived in New Zealand.

The family settled in South Oamaru. On the 13 April 1877 Janet married Henry Keen at the residence of Mrs Porteous, South Town Belt, Oamaru. Their marriage is recorded in St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church Parish Register. (Actual names on the marriage certificate are Henry King & Jessie Porteous). Her sister Elizabeth was one of the witnesses.

Janet and Henry lived in South Oamaru. Her mother, Barbara Porteous, and her sister, Barbara Webb, lived nearby.

Janet and Henry had three sons who were all born in South Oamaru. They were Robert (1878-1972), Henry (Harry) (1882-1957), and John (1884-1959).

Janet suffered from chronic rheumatoid arthritis and in her wedding photo her hands are quite swollen and disjointed. It didn’t stop her from corresponding with her siblings in Scotland and the United States of America and it was her that wrote to tell them that their father had died in 1884. In this letter she said that her mother had to do everything for her as every joint in her body was as big as two and her arms were so drawn up that she couldn’t straighten them. It must have been very difficult looking after her children. John the youngest was born a month after her father died.

Her husband, Henry died in 1919 and is buried in the Oamaru Cemetery. Towards the end of her life, Janet was living in Christchurch with her son John, and this was where she died in December 1924. She is buried in Bromley Cemetery.

Janet, her mother Barbara Porteous, her sisters Elizabeth Orr and Barbara Webb, all signed the 1892 and 1893 petitions.

References

Birth, marriage & death certificates

Passenger list for Nelson from the Hocken Library

Waitaki District Council & Christchurch City Council Cemetery records

Oamaru Mail & North Otago Times

Image

Janet Keen (Family collection)

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

Community contributions

1 comment has been posted about Janet Keen

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JUST Me

Posted: 18 Apr 2020

My 2nd great grandmother, married to Henry Keen about who I would love to know much mo