Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Sara Gibson Whitton was born on 12 December 1861 in Lanarkshire, Scotland – the daughter of Benjamin Whitton and Elizabeth Gibson.
The family lived for most of Sarah’s early life in Ireland. Her mother appears to have died as her father re-married in 1873.
The following year the family emigrated to Otago on the Jessie Readman.
She married John Sheddan, a water engineer, in Warepa, South Otago in 1884, they had no children.
When Sara signed the suffrage petition she seems to have been visiting her sister Prudentia in Caversham, Dunedin. (See 41 P Gibson)
Sara and John celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in Balclutha in 1909 then, in 1934, their golden anniversary.
John died in Balclutha in 1939 and Sara died on 28 June 1945. They are buried together in the Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.
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