Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Catherine Sharkey was born in 1859 in Victoria, Australia – the daughter of James Sharkey, a farrier, and Catherine O’Hare.
She arrived at Port Chalmers with her family in 1863 on the Suffren before sailing for the West Coast a couple of years later.
The family settled in Ross where Catherine married Robert James Smith, a miner, on 11 November 1885 in the Ross Roman Catholic Church.
They had a son the following year before Robert was fatally injured in a fall in a mine in 1889 – he is buried in the Kumara Cemetery.
Catherine gave birth to her second son later that year.
By 1890 she had moved from Kumara to run the Caledonia Hotel in Greymouth where she signed the suffrage petition.
In 1894 she was declared bankrupt and, in 1904, her eldest son James died of consumption (TB).
Catherine died on 27 October 1931 – she is buried in the family grave in the Ross Cemetery.
Sources
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au