Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Julia Corcoran was born about 1859 in Carabrown, Galway, Ireland – the daughter of Walter Corcoran, a farmer, and Bridget Connolly.
Her father died in 1871 and Julia emigrated to Otago with her mother and siblings in 1876 on the Corona.
She married Anthony Francis, a farmer, in 1877 and they had 14 children, two who died in infancy.
They lived at Wairuna, near Clinton in South Otago, where Julia signed the suffrage petition.
They moved to Gore in the 1900s where Anthony died in 1912.
The following year Julia took over the 'Fruit and Confectionery Business lately carried on by Mr James French'.
She died on 9 June 1944 and is buried with Anthony in the Gore Cemetery.
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
Balclutha Geneaology Society http://www.balcluthagenealogy.org.nz/
Irish Genealogy https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/
Gore District Council https://www.goredc.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