Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Catherine Perry was born about 1834 in the parish of St Breock in Cornwall – the youngest daughter of John Perry, a carpenter, and Mary Bennett.
Catherine emigrated to Australia and she married George Frederick Cooper on 6 September 1858 in Trinity Church, Adelaide.
She married as Catherine Lewis, so she appears to be a widow.
Catherine and George moved to Victoria where they had two daughters before sailing for New Zealand in the early 1860s.
They lived for a time in Dunedin before moving to Greymouth.
They had a further eight children in New Zealand, one who died in infancy.
George was an accomplished builder of stage machinery before he became blind in the early 1870s.
He died in 1886 and Catherine remained in Greymouth where she signed the suffrage petition.
Catherine died in Wellington on 12 October 1924 – she is buried with George in the Karoro Cemetery, Greymouth.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au