Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ann Lewis was born on 7 June 1841 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia – the daughter of John Lewis, a labourer, and Elizabeth Mason.
She met Henry Jeffs, a shoemaker, in Tasmania in the late 1850s and they had two children before they married in Victoria in 1862.
They had one more child in Victoria before the family sailed for Otago in 1863 on the Red Jacket.
A further 11 children were born in New Zealand, two who died in early childhood.
The family lived on the corner of Frederick and Cumberland Streets in Dunedin where they ran a general goods shop and where Mary signed the suffrage petition.
Henry died at their home in 1893 and Mary re-married on 22 May 1896 to William Russell, a widower and carter.
William died in 1908 and Mary died on 23 October 1910, she is buried with Henry in the family grave in the Southern 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/
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
Libraries Tasmania https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au