Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ryan was born about 1849.
She married Mathew Dormer, a brewers assistant, in 1869 in New Zealand and they had seven children.
In 1887 Ellen was charged with 'being guilty of conduct calculated to provoke a breach of the peace' by inciting a fight between two neighbours. The local Constable said 'the Dormer’s house was the resort of women of the worst type'. Ellen was fined 20s and costs, in default seven days imprisonment.
The following year their 15-year-old daughter died at their home in Duncan St, North East Valley, Dunedin and in 1889 Ellen was charged with having received two hens, the property of a neighbour which had been taken by her son - the case was dismissed.
Mathew died in 1892 and when Ellen signed the suffrage petition the family were still living in Duncan St.
She died on 18 June 1915 and is buried with Mathew in the Southern 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
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