Catherine Mary Butler : Short Biography

Catherine was born in Clonmel in 1846, She was Roman Catholic and I believe her parents were William Buttler and Alice Burke ( as spelt and written on her marriage licence of 1873 in New Zealand). As a young child who worked, doing laundry and the story goes she was so young she had to stand on a chair to work. As she grew up she was (according to family stories) a Tipperary stone thrower.....she carried a stocking with a stone in the bottom to frighten off would-be attackers when walking in remote places. She migrated to New Zealand in 1873 and I think worked in Canterbury. She eventually moved to Dunedin, where she married and had 4 children. She died in 1899.