Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Johanna was born about 1833.
Her daughter Mary was born in August 1872 and, on 5 June the following year in the Queenstown Parish, 40-year-old Mrs Johanna Matsen married 27-year-old Niels Christian Pousen, a gold miner.
Their son Peter was born in 1875 – he drowned in the Arrow River in 1880.
When Johanna signed the suffrage petition the family were living at 'Arrow Bridge' near Arrowtown.
She died in October 1905 and is buried in the Arrowtown Cemetery. She was 'highly esteemed and respected, and of a very kind and sympathetic disposition'.
Niels died in 1927, his place of burial is unknown.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Queenstown Lakes District Council http://cemeteries.qldc.govt.nz/
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