Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Catherine Jane Ogilvie was born in 1863 in New Zealand – the daughter of William Baird Ogilvie and Margaret Christie.
She attended Otago Girls High School in Dunedin, enrolling in 1874.
When Catherine signed the suffrage petition she was living in Mornington, Dunedin.
She married Harry May, a confectioner, on 2 May 1896 at the Congregational Church in Moray Place, Dunedin and they had three children.
In 1901 Harry, who had three large sweet shops and a factory in Dunedin, drowned himself in the St Clair baths.
He appeared to have been suffering from insomnia and had been 'in a low state of health lately.'
He is buried in the Ogilvie family plot in the Southern Cemetery.
Catherine died in Invercargill on 3 December 1956, at the age of 92. She was cremated and her ashes scattered.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz