Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Elizabeth Melville Hay was born on 4 May 1843 in Portobello, Midlothian, Scotland – the daughter of Robert Hay, a potter, and Fernie Melville.
Elizabeth came to Otago with her sister in 1858 on the Three Bells. On 27 September 1861, in Dunedin, Elizabeth married John Perriam Jenkins, a mariner.
They lived in Maitland St, Dunedin, and had eight children. A daughter died in infancy and a son died at 19 years of age. Their daughter Elizabeth Mary also signed the 1893 suffrage petition.
John died in 1910 and Elizabeth on 11 June 1932, they are buried in the family grave in the Southern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
