Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Elizabeth Wilson McWhirter was born about 1830 in Ballantrae, Ayrshire, Scotland – the daughter of James McWhirter, a fisherman, and Janet Wilson.
She married James Dunlop Thomson, also a fisherman, on 14 October 1849 in Ballantrae.
They had nine children, one who appears to have died in infancy, before the family emigrated to Otago in 1875 on the Oamaru.
When Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition they were living in Leith St, Dunedin and James was working as a railway crossing keeper.
He died in 1899 and Elizabeth died on 4 August 1900, they are buried together in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources
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.
Community contributions