Anna M. Lafranchi

Biographical information provided by Hannah Benbow, Alexander Turnbull Library, for the He Tohu exhibition:

Anna Maria Lafranchi (1835-1924). Anna Maria Lafranchi, also known as Mary, was born in Brusio, Switzerland in 1835. She arrived in New Zealand with her husband Giovachimo (also referred to as Goachim or Giovanni), sometime before 1871. The couple lived first in the mining settlement of Macetown and later in Cardrona. Giovachimo may have worked as a miner before the family opened the All Nations Hotel in Cardrona 1873. Anna appears to have had four children, Alberto (known as Albert), Alfredi (Alfred), Enritchetta (Ettie) and Enrico. Enrico died in 1873, aged 18 months, after falling from chair. Alfred and Albert launched a gold mining dredge, the ‘Lafranchi Dredge’, in 1902, running it until it sank in 1916. Anna Maria died in Cardrona in 1924, aged 89. Her husband had died in 1889, after falling from his horse.