Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Jane Gray was born in 1858 in St Columb, Cornwall – the daughter of Francis Gray, a lead miner, and Fanny May.
She married John Keast, a labourer in 1883 and they emigrated to Otago the same year on the Victory.
They settled in Dunedin where John worked as a carter and they had nine children, one who died in infancy.
When Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Hillside, South Dunedin.
They later moved to Kuri Bush south of Dunedin where they had a farm then to Middlemarch in Central Otago where Mary died on 4 March 1939.
John died in 1943 – they are buried in the family grave in the Southern Cemetery, Dunedin.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz