suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Ayers
Given names: 
S. A.
Given address: 
Rangiora
Sheet No: 238
Town/Suburb: 
Rangiora
City/Region: 
Canterbury
Notes: 

Biographical information and image supplied by Wendy Crane.

Sarah Ann Judson, my great grandmother, was born in Eastwell, a village of farm labourers SE of Nottingham, England, the fourth child of William and Sarah Judson. In 1859 the family of five children emigrated to N.Z. on the Clontarf. It was a terrible journey of four months of violent storms, a fire, and measles – five adults and 28 children died, including their baby Martha. Sarah Ann (2) was nearly thrown overboard as dead, but the captain gave in to her mother’s pleas that she was still alive. She was the youngest child to survive, and recovered though was never robust, living with only one lung. (She always enjoyed the puzzlement of doctors over this).

The Ayers family photo is of Samuel and Sarah Ann and eight children taken in 1891; before two more girls

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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