Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Kate Austin was born on 29 September 1857 in Hobart, Tasmania – the daughter of Abraham Austin, a butcher, and Kate Mary Slattery.
She travelled to Otago in 1863 with her family on the City of Hobart and they settled in Dunedin.
Kate married Lewis Buskin, a carpenter, on 29 January 1877 and they had three children.
Their youngest child died in September 1884 and Lewis died six weeks later.
When Kate signed the suffrage petition she was living with her family in Serpentine Avenue.
Kate re-married in 1894 to Frederick Edwards Stevens, a French polisher, and they had a daughter.
Frederick died in 1923, he is buried in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Kate died on 25 March 1943, she is buried with Lewis and her children in the Southern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Libraries Tasmania https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au
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