Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Christina Crawford was born in 1863 in Victoria, Australia – the daughter of James Crawford and Catherine McCue.
She came to New Zealand with her family as a young child and they settled in Invercargill where her father drove a Cobb & Co coach.
Christina worked as a dressmaker and held the position of 'head dressmaker in Mrs Holmes’s Invercargill establishment'.
She married police constable John Alfred Ferguson in 1887 and they had three sons.
The family lived in Gore, Dunedin and Kaitangata before John was compulsorily retired from the police force due to ill health.
They then moved back to Gore where Christina signed the suffrage petition.
John died at Seacliff in 1902 and Christina petitioned parliament for a compassionate allowance, whether this was granted is unknown.
Christina then ran a boarding house in Gore until 1907 when she married widower Patrick Flanahan, proprietor of the Albion Hotel.
Patrick died in 1912 – he is buried with his first wife in the Gore Cemetery.
Christina died in Invercargill on 26 January 1941 – she is buried with John in the Gore Cemetery.
Her obituary said she was 'a highly respected resident of Gore' and 'a staunch Roman Catholic.'
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
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