Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Lydia Farland was born in 1859 in Canterbury – the daughter of, farmer, James Farland and Mary Gray.
She married Henry Rodda, a shoemaker, on 27 January 1882 at her home in Waltham.
By 1888 they had had three children – all of these children died in January of that year at Kaiapoi.
Later in the year, in April, Henry was declared bankrupt.
It appears to be around this time that the family moved to Dunedin.
They had a further three children and when Lydia signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Forth St, Linden, Roslyn.
Henry died in 1902 and Lydia died on 6 July 1955 – they are buried together 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
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
NZ Intentions to Marry Project https://itm.howison.co.nz/