Surname:
McCurdy
Given names:
Mary E.
Given address:
South Dunedin
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Mary E. McCurdy
What do you know?
Mary Ellen Jackson was born in Green Island, Dunedin, in 1867, the daughter of Samuel Jackson, mariner, from Halifax, Nova Scotia and Susan Kenny, born in England but a New Zealand Company arrival in 1848.
Mary Ellen’s childhood must have been difficult as Samuel is recorded as being in the courts for drunkenness, theft and assault. He was declared bankrupt in in 1872.
When she was 18, Mary Ellen married David McCurdy, an Irishman, who worked on the railways. She had 10 children and moved regularly to railway towns including Invercargill, Balclutha, Featherston and Timaru. Her father was in Timaru with her when he died in 1901.
In 1914 her brother and nephews died in the Huntly Mine Disaster.
Her son David was a soldier during World War 1 and her daughter Mary a teacher.
Mary Ellen died in Dunedin in 1932.
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