Minnie Miles

Biographical information provided by Stefanie Lash, Archives New Zealand, for the He Tohu exhibition:

Wilhelmina “Minnie” Büsing was born in 1866 in Rostock, a city in North Germany located close to the Baltic Sea. The Büsing family came to New Zealand as assisted migrants in 1872, when Minnie was four. In 1877 Minnie’s father Carl became a naturalised British subject, meaning the children became British subjects too. The family lived first in Oxford, Canterbury, then moved to Wellington where Minnie married William Colston Miles, a bootmaker, in 1889.

Minnie has signed the Petition with Mary Büsing, likely her sister Emma Maria Charlotte Büsing.

Minnie and William had three children between 1891 and 1904. In 1896 they were living in Broadway Terrace, now called Torrens Terrace. They later moved to Christchurch.

Minnie died in 1924.