Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Lovett Melamphy was born in 1854 in Chelsea, London – the daughter of James Melamphy, a lock maker, and Mary O’Brien.
She married Charles Homer, a blacksmith, on 4 March 1873 in Lambeth, Surrey and they had three children before the family emigrated to Otago in 1878 on the Piako.
They had a further seven children in New Zealand and when Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Orepuki, Southland and Charles was working as a miner.
Charles died in 1900 in Orepuki and after his death Mary went to live in Dunedin near her family.
She died on 25 December 1939 at her daughter’s home - she was cremated and her ashes buried in the Orepuki 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
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
Southland District Council https://www.southlanddc.govt.nz/