suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Thomson
Given names: 
Mrs Ellen
Given address: 
Forth Street
Sheet No: 46
Town/Suburb: 
Central Dunedin
City/Region: 
Dunedin
Notes: 

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

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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