Originally transcribed as Louisa Edith Kienan
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Louisa Edith Sherlock was born in 1873 in Jersey, Channel Islands – the daughter of Albert William Sherlock, a sailor and fisherman, and Sarah Ann Richardson.
She emigrated to Otago with her mother and siblings in 1887 on the Arawa – her father presumably worked his passage or came earlier.
Louisa married John Oscar Keinan, a labourer from Finland, in 1891 and when she signed the suffrage petition they were living in Bluff.
They had five children and, in 1911, the family moved to Dunedin.
On 5 July 1928 Louisa’s son went to see his mother and 'found her lying in the bathroom with a severe wound on her throat and a razor on the floor nearby.'
An inquest was held, Louisa had 'been in indifferent health for some time...she had also been an inmate of the Hospital.'
John died in 1943, they are buried together in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Jerripedia http://search.jerripediabmd.net/
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