Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Catherine Stevenson was born about 1847 in Ireland.
She married John Bland, a flax mill worker, on 21 January 1870 in Renfrewshire, Scotland – they had three children before the family emigrated to Otago in 1876 on the “Dunedin”.
They settled in Dunedin where they had a further seven children and John worked as a carpenter.
When Catherine signed the suffrage petition they were living in North East Valley.
In 1905 John was working on a house when some scaffolding gave way and he fell crushing his leg which had to be amputated.
Later that year on 17 December Catherine died – she is buried in the Northern Cemetery.
John died in 1912 on board the “Omrah” from “heat apoplexy” travelling between Glasgow and Sydney – he was buried at sea.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk