Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Bell Johnstone was born in 1870 in South Otago – the daughter of George Johnstone, a farmer, and Mary Wilson. (See 126 Mary Johnstone)
When she signed the suffrage petition she was living on the family farm at Purekireki in the Owaka Valley.
She married James Mitchell Youngson, a farmer, on 27 January 1904 at her parents’ home.
They had four children and lived at 'Willow Bank' at Kuriwao near Clinton in South Otago.
In later life they retired to Dunedin where James died in 1938 and Mary died on 22 September 1951, they are buried together 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz