Bridget Reid (born O'Donnell)

It is said that Bridget was brought up by her grandmother and that her mother and grandmother had a falling out in 1876 , resulting in her being put aboard a ship to New Zealand. She was looked after on this ship by two cousins by the name of Red and Black Mawhinney (they were cousins and both had the same name of Wilson hence the names Red and Black) . A young man (James Reid) helped her to get ashore and she was given a job in the local hotel at Kattigi. She married James some six weeks later at that hotel. Stanley the last of Bridgets and James's children was born one month after the sudden death of James in February 1896. Bridget is proported to have said "that if James had lived they would have had more children". In 1908 at the time of John's (b. 1877) marriage was living in Kyeburn, Central Otago where the family had farmed for some time. Bridget carried on with the farm after James's death, until all the children were old enough to leave home. She then sold everything and moved to the North Island. Bridget returned to Kyeburn later on in life and lived in a cottage on one of the sons properties. She died at Milton Otago at her daughter Mary's residence at the age of 88.