Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ann Taylor was born in 1850 in Wiltshire, England – the daughter of William Taylor, an agricultural labourer, and Miriam Lawrence.
She had a daughter in 1870 (See 40 Mildred A Willis) before she married Alfred Willis in 1872 who appears to be Mildred’s father.
Ann and Alfred had a further two children before they emigrated to Otago in 1878 on the Piako.
They settled in Milton, in South Otago, where they had their last four children and where Alfred worked as a labourer.
Alfred was declared insolvent in 1882 and he died in 1888.
Ann moved to Dunedin and when she signed the suffrage petition she was living in Grosvenor St, Kensington.
She died at her son’s home in Winton on 26 May 1918 and is buried with Alfred in the Fairfax Cemetery, Milton.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
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
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
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