Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Sarah Morrison was born about 1838 in Ireland – the daughter of Malcolm Morrison, a farmer.
She married farmer Alexander Michael on 18 December 1862 in Ballymoney, County Wicklow.
They had five children before they emigrated to New Zealand about 1879.
They had a further four children after their arrival, one who died in infancy, and they lived at first in Lawrence before moving to Dunedin in 1883.
When Sarah signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Melbourne St, South Dunedin and Alexander was working as a carter.
He died in 1912 and two years later the family home was destroyed by fire – everything was lost.
Sarah died on 13 April 1919 – she is buried with Alexander in the Southern Cemetery.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Irish Genealogy https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions