Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ann Matilda Curtis was born about 1851 in St Heliers, Jersey in the Channel Islands – the daughter of John Curtis, a baker, and Eleanor.
She married Thomas Kellacovy Thorn on 4 March 1872 in St Saviour, Jersey.
What happened to Thomas is unclear – Mary emigrated to Otago in 1873 on the Lady Jocelyn.
She married John Reay, a farmer and widower with three children, on 16 April 1877.
Mary and John had three children together and when Mary signed the suffrage petition they were living in Owaka.
In 1895 Mary and John moved to the North Island 'owing to Mrs Reay’s continuing illness'.
They lived at Makairo near Pahiatua – Mary died on 10 October 1907 in Knighton, Hamilton.
John died in Auckland in 1931 – they are buried together in the Hamilton East 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
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
Jerripedia http://search.jerripediabmd.net/
Hamilton City Council https://www.hamilton.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