Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Maria Holt was born in 1868 in Central Otago – the daughter of James Holt, a miner, and Kitty Wilson.
She married James Dungey, a coach driver, in 1887 and they had 12 children, one who died in infancy.
The family lived in Queenstown where Maria signed the suffrage petition.
In 1899 their 10-year-old son James died, he had suffered a 'paralytic stroke when an infant, and never recovered'.
They moved to Lawrence shortly afterwards then to Dunedin where James died in 1920.
Maria died at her home on 21 July 1924, she is buried with James in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz