Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Margaret Elizabeth Cattanach was born on 1 November 1859 at Glenmuick, Aberdeenshire, Scotland – the daughter of Jane Cattanach.
She travelled to Victoria, Australia with her mother as a young child and she married Joseph Field Rawlinson on 7 November 1870 at the West Melbourne Presbyterian Church.
They had three children before they sailed for New Zealand about 1876.
A further five children were born after their arrival - lived in Invercargill and Tapanui before moving to Dunedin in the late 1880s.
When Margaret signed the suffrage petition they were living in Opoho – she died at her daughter’s home in Dunedin on 22 November 1923.
Joseph died in 1929 – they are buried in the family grave in the Andersons Bay 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk