Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ann Samuel was born about 1827 in Peebleshire, Scotland.
She married Walter Rae, a millman in a wool factory and a widower, on 31 August 1850 in Innerleithen, Peebleshire and they had 10 children, one who died in infancy.
In 1871 the family emigrated to Otago on the Helenslee, Walter was one of 19 men brought to the country to 'introduce the manufacture of Scotch Tweeds into the Colony'.
They had a further three children after their arrival in Otago.
When Ann signed the suffrage petition they were living in Rose St, Roslyn.
She died at her home on 4 January 1898, Walter re-married later that year and he died in 1906.
They are buried with their son 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk