Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Matilda Steel was born about 1847 – she was possibly the 19 year old Matilda from Londonderry who arrived in Canterbury in 1865 on the Tudor.
Matilda married John Alexander Duff, a butcher, in Dunedin on 14 October 1874 and they had five children.
When Matilda signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Outram, West Taieri.
In the early 1900s they bought a property at Island Cliff near Oamaru where they farmed until retiring to live in Oamaru in the 1920s.
Matilda died on 12 December 1926 in Oamaru and John died in 1934, they are buried together in the Oamaru 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
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Waitaki District Council https://www.waitaki.govt.nz/