Biographical information provided by Stefanie Lash, Archives New Zealand, for the He Tohu exhibition:
Euphemia Foster and her husband William, with their children, arrived in New Zealand in the late 1880s but returned to Scotland in about 1900, so appearances of Euphemia in the public record are scarce. It is known that while the family were living in New Zealand, Euphemia and William had four sons. On the Women’s Suffrage Petition Euphemia gave her occupation as 'housewife'. William worked as a miner. They lived at Shag Point, near Palmerston in Otago.
Additional biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Euphemia Grindley was born on 5 September 1864 in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland – the daughter of James Grindley, a cotton weaver, and Euphemia Calder.
She worked as a power loom weaver before her marriage in 1884 to William Foster, a miner.
They had two daughters in Scotland before they emigrated to New Zealand in the late 1880s.
William worked as a miner and when Euphemia signed the suffrage petition they were living in Shag Point.
They had four sons in New Zealand before they returned to Scotland about 1897 where their next two daughters were born in Linlithgowshire.
Euphemia and William appear to have died in Scotland.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
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