Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Jessie Grounds was born on 4 July 1861 in Lanarkshire, Scotland – the daughter of John Grounds, a railway labourer, and Margaret McNeill. (See 83 Margaret Grounds)
She emigrated to Canterbury in 1873 on the James Nicol Fleming with her family and they settled in Dunedin.
Jessie married George Stirling, a grocer, on 18 December 1878 at her home.
They had 11 children, three who died in infancy and one who was stillborn.
When Jessie signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Forth St, Dunedin.
George died at their home in 1907 and Jessie re-married in 1909 to John Booth, a carpenter and widower.
John died in 1927, he is buried with his first wife in the Northern Cemetery.
Jessie died on 24 October 1939 in Dunedin, she is buried with George in the family grave also in the Northern 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
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/