Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Mary Helen Hislop was born about 1852 in Midlothian, Scotland – the daughter of John Hislop, a school teacher, and Johanna Campbell Horne.
Mary emigrated to Otago with her family in 1856 on the “Strathmore” and they lived, at first, at East Taieri before moving to Dunedin where her father worked for the Otago Education Board. Mary married Dr Hugh Macdonald on 13 January 1874 at Tweedbank, Dunedin.
They had seven children and lived in Lyttleton where Hugh died in 1886 when their youngest child was two years old – he is buried in the Lyttleton Cemetery.
One month late Mary gave birth to a daughter who was named Hughina Kate after her father.
The following year Mary moved back to Dunedin with her children and was living in Forth Street when she signed the suffrage petition.
She later moved to Invercargill where she died on 1 April 1930 – she is buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin.
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/
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk