Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Perviously transcribed as C Bergeerman.
Elizabeth Jane Reid was born on April 27th 1867 in Dromore, County Antrim, Ireland, the daughter of Hugh Reid, a farmer, and Eliza Coleman.
Her mother died in 1876, and her father remarried the following year - her stepmother died in 1880.
Elizabeth, accompanied by her father and five siblings, emigrated to Otago in 1881 on the Dunedin.
They settled in Dunedin, where she married Carlo Bergamini, a monumental mason and sculptor from Italy, in 1889.
When Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition they were living in Kilgour St, Roslyn.
They had five children and moved to Christchurch about 1910. Sometime after this their marriage appears to have deteriorated.
In 1923 Elizabeth took Carlo to court for disobeying a maintenance order. He was fined £100 or 3 months imprisonment.
Elizabeth fostered many children. In 1929, she was charged with “wilfully ill-treating a girl under sixteen”. She had beaten the girl with a stick and admitted losing her temper. She was fined £3 and costs.
Carlo died in 1934 and Elizabeth died on November 25th 1945 in Greymouth. They are buried in the Bromley Cemetery, Christchurch.
Sources
Christchurch City Council Cemeteries Database
Carlo Guiseppe Bergamini – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
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