Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Walker was born about 1845 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
She married Robert Donald, a mason, on 3 September 1864 in Kenmay, Aberdeenshire and they had four children before the family emigrated to Otago in 1874 on the Parsee.
They lived, at first, in Sawyers Bay near Dunedin and had a further four children before moving to Purekireki in the Owaka Valley, about 1884, where they had a farm.
This is where Mary signed the suffrage petition.
Robert died in 1917 at their home in, nearby, Pounawea.
After Robert’s death Mary moved to Dunedin where she died on 7 June 1923, they are both buried in the Owaka Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
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