Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ryan was born about 1851 in County Tiperary, Ireland – the daughter of James Ryan and Mary Ellen Condon.
She emigrated to Bluff with her family in 1876 on the Pomona and later that year she married John Kerr, a carpenter.
They had five children, one who died in childhood and when Mary signed the suffrage petition they were living in Bluff.
John died in 1899, he is buried with their young son in the Bluff Cemetery.
Mary and the children appear to have emigrated to California soon after John’s death.
In 1910 Mary was living with her married daughter in Oakland California, her date of death is unknown.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
NZ Yesteryears http://www.yesteryears.co.nz
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Invercargill City Council https://icc.govt.nz
Ryan Family https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/r/y/a/Jim-Ryan-Arrowtown/
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions