Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Annie Johanna Jurgens/Christie was born about 1859 in Victoria, Australia – the daughter of immigrants George Jurgens/Christie, a carter, and Johanna Wilhelmina Rebecca Heidemann.
She came to Otago with her parents as a child where her father conducted a coaching business on the Otago Goldfields.
Her father changed his name to Christie when the family came to New Zealand.
When she was young Annie 'who was an expert horsewoman, conveyed the mail on horseback twice weekly between Outram and Waipori, undeterred by flooded creeks or winter’s storms.'
She married John Paul, a carter, on 17 April 1880 and they had eight children, one who died in infancy.
The couple 'took over the lease of the Accommodation Hotel at Whare Flat.'
Annie managed the hotel while John 'engaged in droving and wagon carting from Central Otago to Dunedin.'
In the 1890s the family moved to Milton where Annie signed the suffrage petition.
She died at Seacliff on 11 March 1935 – her obituary said she 'was highly esteemed by all who had the honour of her acquaintance.'
John died in Milton in 1943, they are buried in the Fairfax Cemetery, Milton.
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