Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Mary Anne Torrens was born about 1855 in Ireland – the daughter of John Torrens, a carpenter, and Mary Ann McConaghy.
She emigrated to Otago with her family in 1874 on the “Tweed” and they settled in Dunedin.
Mary married John William Auld, a moulder, on 24 May 1878 at St Paul’s Cathedral, Dunedin.
They had seven children and when Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Kirkland Hill, Roslyn.
In 1903 the family sailed for Western Australia and settled in Yarloop.
They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary there in 1928 at their home “Kia Ora”.
John died in 1932 and Mary died on 16 May 1940 in Fremantle – they are buried together in the Karrakatta Cemetery.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
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