Biographical information provided by Fiona Oliver, Alexander Turnbull Library, for the He Tohu exhibition, with additions from Katherine Blakeley.
Janet Ferguson Thomson was born in 1869 in New Zealand – the daughter of Alexander Thomson and Christina McAuslan.
She married Walter Russell Piddington, a clerk, on 3 November 1892 in Dunedin. They emigrated to New Zealand and settled in St Clair, Dunedin. In 1893, the year she signed the suffrage petition, Janet gave birth to a daughter, Vera. Three years later she had a son, Walter, then two more daughters, Jenny (1900) and Phyllis (1904). She was widowed in 1935. She died in Dunedin in 1954 and was survived by her two daughters.
They are buried with 2 of their daughters 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
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Also signed as 71 W R Piddington