Makers: Jan and Emma Schrader

Panel number: 296

Petition sheet number: 351

Person honouring: E. T. Jenkins

Relationship to makers: Great-great-aunt

Elisabeth [Lizzie] Turnbull Jenkins was born in Bridgeton, Glasgow in 1870, the third child of Elisabeth Turnbull and Gilbert Jenkins.

Along with her parents and two older brothers, she arrived at Bluff on the Electra in March, 1883. Her mother’s sister Mary and her husband, Robert Allison, had already migrated to Southland to farm in the Mataura area. The Jenkins family chose Invercargill, where the two brothers settled into building successful careers in the grocery and general store business. 

Lizzie’s mother had been a dressmaker before her marriage. She probably taught her daughter this skill set, for Lizzie was listed as a tailoress on electoral rolls before her marriage. Although her father was born into a family of weavers, he worked in several different service jobs before the family migrated. Gilbert didn’t really settle in his new country – he died two years after arriving, so it’s easy to imagine the mother and daughter putting their sewing skills to work in their new community.

In 1898, Lizzie married schoolteacher Thomas Kelly, also Scottish-born, with her cousin and a fellow tailor as witnesses. Together Lizzie and Thomas had at least four children. They likely moved around Southland for Thomas’ work, but were living at Brydone in the Mataura electorate in 1911, and were back in Invercargill in 1935.

This was the year they both died [1935], Elisabeth the day after Thomas.

Panel materials: Calico (which I had), cotton (in my stock), silk chiffon (bought), printable heat transfer material (bought), photocopy paper, embroidery thread, plastic buttons.