Isabella Twelftree

Signed family name

Twelftree

Signed given name

Isabella

Given address

Moary Place

Sheet number

112

Town/Suburb

Central Dunedin

City/Region

Dunedin

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Isabella Twelftree was born in 1865 in Berwick on the Taieri Plains – the daughter of Robert Barnes Twelftree and Elizabeth Dempster.

She attended Lake Waipori school and when she signed the suffrage petition she was living in Moray Place, Dunedin.

Her twin sister also signed the petition. (See 113 M Twelftree)

Isabella married John Francis O’Connell on 18 April 1900 in Dunedin and they had four children, one who died in infancy.

In 1916 Isabella left her family and John applied for a divorce in 1921. He claimed that they 'got along capitally until petitioner took up dairying as an occupation. The respondent complained bitterly of the work she had to do and finally left the petitioner. She had never even gone back to see the children'. The divorce was granted.

John re-married in 1925 – he died in 1928 and is buried in the Southern Cemetery.

Isabella remained in Dunedin – she died on 26 December 1952 and is buried with one of her sons in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.