See also Caversham research databases
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Jeanie Cassels Robertson was born about 1854 in Scotland.
She married Thomas Caldwell Smiley in Glasgow in 1878 and the following year the couple emigrated to Otago on the Oamaru.
They settled, at first, in Dunedin where they had five children.
In 1888 the family moved to Arrowtown where Thomas worked in the Macetown and Skippers mines.
They returned to Dunedin in 1889 and when Jeanie signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Alexandra St, Caversham.
They went back to Arrowtown in 1894 for a couple of years before finally settling in Dunedin.
Thomas died in 1924 and Jeanie died on 7 November 1933 - they are buried in the family grave in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
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
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions