Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Elizabeth McWilliam was born in 1854 in Lancashire, England – the daughter of James McWilliam and Janet Wilson.
She came to New Zealand where she married Peter Hay Shennan, a grocer, on 22 March 1883 at her grandmother’s home in Dunedin.
They had two children and when Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition they were living in Great King Street.
They later moved to Timaru where Peter died in 1924 and Elizabeth died on 12 October 1925 – they are buried together in the Timaru Cemetery.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/