Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Margaret Anastasia Neylon was born about 1854 in Melbourne, Australia. She married Charles Mansfield in New Zealand in 1874 and they had a son that same year.
Charles disappears from the records after this and, in 1878, Margaret married Arthur William Everitt Stiffe, a clerk.
Margaret and Arthur had three children and lived in Christchurch. In 1884 Arthur moved to Melbourne, Victoria, to start a new job but he did not cope well and became depressed, finally shooting himself in the office with a revolver.
Shortly afterwards Margaret and the children moved to Dunedin. When she signed the suffrage petition Margaret was living in Hanover St, Dunedin.
Margaret married Sidney Anniss in 1899. Sidney died in 1909 when he was working as a fireman on the fishing steamer Duco when it disappeared while on a trip between Wellington and the Chatham Islands. Margaret sued the shipping company for compensation of £1,500 and the case was settled out of court.
Margaret died in Wellington on 27 February 1941 and she is buried in the Karori Cemetery, Wellington.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au
Wellington City Council https://wellington.govt.nz
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