Originally transcribed as Mary Fittle
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Smail was born on 8 June 1852 in Morebattle, Roxburghshire, Scotland – the daughter of James Smail, a carter, and Mary Hogarth.
Her parents both died in 1855 and Mary emigrated to Otago with her two brothers in the late 1860s.
She married Walter Little, a miner, on 4 February 1875 at East Taieri.
They had seven children and lived at Branch Creek, Cardrona where Mary signed the suffrage petition.
Mary died on 2 September 1911 at the Arrow District Hospital, she was 'held in the highest esteem by all who had the pleasure of her acquaintance. Kindly and considerate in her disposition she was a good wife and mother'.
Walter died in 1932, they are buried together in the Cardrona Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Queenstown Lakes District Council http://cemeteries.qldc.govt.nz/
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
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