Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Florence Jane Hall was born in 1875 in Durham, England – the daughter of William Parker Hall, a grocer and coal miner, and Sarah Ann Whitfield.
She emigrated to Otago with her family in 1878 on the Easterhill.
The following year her father and uncle were among the 34 men who died in the Kaitangata mine explosion.
When Sarah signed the suffrage petition she was living with her mother and siblings in Green Island near Dunedin working as a tailoress.
She married Thomas Matthew McAhan, a piano manufacturer, in 1905 and they had one daughter.
Florence lived in the Green Island area for the rest of her life, she died there on 1 January 1953.
Thomas died in 1962, they are buried together in the Green Island 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