Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Barnett was born about 1858 in County Cork, Ireland, she emigrated to Otago with her mother Catherine about 1874 and settled in Dunedin.
Mary married Abraham Alexander Geary, an expressman, in 1879. They had eight children, two who died in infancy, and when Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Castle St, Dunedin.
Mary died on 15 December 1912, she is buried with several of her children and her mother in the Northern Cemetery.
After Mary’s death Abraham moved to the North Island where two of their children were living.
He died in Gisborne in 1934 and is buried in the Taruheru Cemetery, Gisborne.
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
Gisborne District Council https://cemeterysearch.gdc.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