Originally transcribed as Mrs C. Parsons
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Elizabeth Ann Long was born in 1856 in Bristol, England – the first child of Isaac Long, an engineer, and Mary Ann Tresize.
In 1859 the family sailed for Victoria, Australia on the Commodore Perry.
Elizabeth’s younger brother was born in 1860 but died in infancy and her mother also appears to have died around that time.
By 1870 she was living in Wetherstones, in Otago, with her father attending the Wetherstones school.
Also living in Wetherstone was David Parsons, a blacksmith who Elizabeth would eventually marry.
Between 1874 and 1885 Elizabeth had five children, presumably with David Parsons, one of these children appears to have died in infancy.
Elizabeth and David married in Dunedin in 1888 and had a further four children.
When Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Cumberland St, Dunedin. They later moved to Henley, south of Dunedin.
Elizabeth died on 5 January 1921 in Dunedin while visiting her daughter and David died, also in Dunedin, in 1924.
They are buried together in the Northern Cemetery.