Mrs Doodeward

Signed family name

Doodeward

Signed given name

Mrs

Given address

George St

Sheet number

115

Town/Suburb

Central Dunedin

City/Region

Dunedin

Notes

Originally transcribed as Mrs Hoodenward

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Anna Margaret Bird was born in 1843 in Suffolk, England – the daughter of John Bird, a baker, and Margaret Wright.

She came to New Zealand in the 1860s and had two children with Abraham Charles Rees, a tobacconist & hotel keeper - there is no known record of their marriage.

Abraham was declared insolvent in 1866 and sometime after 1868 Abraham left the country. He appears in London on the 1871 census as a single tobacconist and married in 1881.

Anna married Samuel Doodeward, a photographer from Holland at the registry office in Dunedin on 27 January 1870.

They had nine children, three who died in infancy, and Samuel ran a tobacconist and barber shop in George St, Dunedin.

When Annie signed the suffrage petition the family were still living in George St.

Annie died on 20 March 1900 and Samuel died in 1913.

Annie’s obituary said 'she was a good friend and an excellent neighbour.'

They are buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery.