Originally transcribed as Roseana Brewley
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Rosanna Beckham was born in 1858 in Victoria, Australia – the daughter of William Beckham, a butcher, and Ann Pitcher.
She came to New Zealand with her family in the early 1860s.
In 1870 the family went to Martin’s Bay and stayed about five years leaving soon after the death of Rosanna’s youngest sister, Martina.
They moved to Dunedin where her father died in 1878 and her mother in 1880.
Rosanna married Thomas Bewley, a baker, in 1881 and they had four children, one who died in early childhood.
The family lived in Milton where Rosanna signed the suffrage petition.
Thomas died in 1902, due to an accident at work, and Rosanna died on 16 April 1943 in Dunedin.
They are buried in the Fairfax Cemetery, Milton.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
Further information
Philip J Bewley, A History of the Bewley Family of Canberra, 2021 (PDF, 6MB)
