Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Selina Bray was born in about 1838. She married James Ruston in Victoria, Australia in 1854.
They had four children in Victoria before travelling to Dunedin in 1862. Another five children were born in Dunedin, one dying in infancy. James worked as a lighterman running a prosperous business, until the railway connected Port Chalmers with Dunedin.
In 1877 James, now a boardinghouse keeper, was declared bankrupt. He died in 1893.
When she signed the suffrage petition Selina was living in Castle St. The following year she was advertising in the paper that she had rooms to let.
Selina died on 13 December 1915 and she is buried with James in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
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
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