Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Isabella Heads was born about 1868.
She married Charles Augustus Swanson, from Sweden, on 25 August 1887 at Knox Church, Dunedin.
They had two children and lived in Middlemarch before Charles deserted the family in 1891 'without any reasonable excuse, and had failed to provide any means for the applicant or her children.'
When Isabella signed the suffrage petition she had moved to Dunedin with the children and was living in North East Valley.
Isabella applied for a protection order from the court so she could obtain a hotel licence – the order was granted and Isabella was granted 'exclusive custody of the children'.
In the late 1890s they moved back to the Maniototo area and lived in Ranfurly and Wedderburn.
Isabella married James Glenn on 26 March 1900 at the Dunedin registry office. After a few years in Dunedin they moved to Omarama.
James died in, nearby, Oamaru in 1930 – he is buried in the Old Oamaru Cemetery.
Isabella died in Masterton on 7 March 1942 – she is buried in the Archer St, Cemetery.
Charles Augustus Swanson died in Darwin, Australia in 1936 – he is buried in the Darwin Gardens Cemetery Reserve.
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
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/