Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Barbara Lawson was born on 3 October 1846 in Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland – the daughter of Frederick Lawson, a ship’s master, and Isabella Davidson.
Her mother died when she was two-years-old and her father re-married two years later.
Barbara emigrated to Otago about 1869 and she married John Morrison, a miner, on 17 April 1877 at York Place, Dunedin.
They had six children, one who died in childhood, when John died in 1891.
He had gone to Waipori to find mining work but found the work too hard, a few days later he died from an overdose of laudanum.
When Barbara signed the suffrage petition she was living with her children in Brown St, Dunedin.
She died at her home on 30 September 1919 and is buried with John in the family grave in the Northern 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
North Isles Family History https://www.bayanne.info/
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