Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ada Leigh was born in 1867 in Manchester, Lancashire, England – the daughter of Camille Leigh, a mechanic from France, and Ellen Merritt from Ireland.
She emigrated to New Zealand in 1884 on the Doric with her sister Amy. (See 83 Amy Leigh)
When Ada signed the suffrage petition she was living in Grange St, Dunedin with Amy working as a tailoress.
She married Francis Henry Leigh, a hairdresser, (no known relation) on 14 August 1895 in Dunedin.
They had four children and the family moved to Victoria, Australia in the 1900s.
Francis died in 1943 and Ada died on 10 August 1945, they were both cremated and their ashes are interred in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Dandenong, Victoria.
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/
Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
Billion Graves https://billiongraves.com/grave/Ada-Leigh/29466881
Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust https://smct.org.au/deceased-search
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