Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Jane Thomson Bland was born in Renfrewshire, Scotland in 1870 – the daughter of John Bland, a flax mill worker, and Catherine Stevenson. (See 164 Catherine Bland)
She emigrated to Otago in 1876 on the “Dunedin” with her family and they settled in Dunedin.
When Jane signed the suffrage petition she was living with her family in North East Valley working as a laundress.
She married Henry Isaac Thompson, a storeman, on 25 April 1893 in Dunedin and they had two children.
Jane died at her home in Dunedin on 22 March 1944 and Henry died in Invercargill in 1952 – they are buried together in the Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.
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
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
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