Ruth Smith

Signed family name

Smith

Signed given name

Ruth

Given address

Jackson Street

Sheet number

358

Town/Suburb

Invercargill

City/Region

Southland

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Ruth Parkes was born in 1846 in Worcestershire, England – the daughter of Benjamin Parkes, a miner, and Mary Webster.

She married Turner Smith, a brewer’s cooper, in 1869 in Lancashire and they had a son the following year.

Turner appears to have sailed for New Zealand as, in 1861, Ruth and their son were living with Turner’s parents in Burnley, Lancashire.

Ruth and her son Arthur sailed for Otago in 1874 on the Christian McAusland as nominated immigrants – they joined Turner in Invercargill where a further two children were born.

Turner died in 1883, Ruth remained in Invercargill where she died on 1 February 1928, she is buried with Turner in the St Johns Cemetery, Invercargill.