Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ellen Bresnahan was born on 11 September 1871 in Leinster, Ireland – the daughter of Benjamin Bresnahan and Catherine Holmes and she came to New Zealand with her parents about 1873. Ellen had a son in 1889 who died soon after birth and a daughter in October 1890. She married in December 1890 to James Ainslie Thomson, an electroplater, and they had four sons.
When Ellen signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Forth St, Dunedin.
In December 1901 James committed suicide by taking arsenic, leaving Ellen with five young children.
She stayed in Forth St until she died on 9 April 1943. She is buried with James 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