Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Sarah Jane Burgess was born in 1870 in Warwickshire, England – the daughter of Joseph Burgess and Jane Haynes.
She came to New Zealand as a young child with her family and they settled in Mataura where they had a farm.
Sarah married Albert James Stenning, a labourer, in 1887 and they had seven children. Their photo is in the Owaka Museum and can be seen here - https://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/collections/3021/objects/74989/photograph-albert-and-sarah-stenning
When Sarah signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Owaka.
They retired to nearby Pounawea in the 1920s where Albert died in 1936.
Sarah died in Owaka on 26 April 1946, they are buried in the Owaka Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
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