Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Sarah Dawson was born on 15 June 1850 in South Australia – the daughter of James Dawson and Sarah Latta.
She came to Dunedin with her family in 1860 on the Ariel and she married Hugh McKechnie, a sawmiller, on 1 June 1876 in Dunedin.
They had seven children and when Sarah signed the suffrage petition they were living in Puerua in South Otago.
They later moved to, nearby, Ratanui where they had a farm.
Hugh died in 1933 and Sarah died at her daughter’s home in Invercargill on 8 November 1942, they are buried together in the Invercargill Eastern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Invercargill City Council https://icc.govt.nz
Family History SA https://www.familyhistorysa.org/