Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Burns was born about 1837 and she appears to have arrived in Otago in the early 1860s.
Mary had a daughter Jennie/Jean (See 98 J Boyd) in 1863 and she married James Boyd, a labourer, on 11 February 1864.
Mary and James had five children and when Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living in North Taieri Rd, Dunedin.
Mary died at her daughter’s home in Oamaru on 14 October 1905 and James died in Dunedin in 1912, they are buried together in the Oamaru Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
First Church of Otago https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/firstchurch/firstchurchdatabase.html
Waitaki District Council https://www.waitaki.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