Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Eliza Gray Park Cunningham was born on 24 March 1841 in Dunbartonshire, Scotland – the daughter of Robert Park Cunningham and Isabella Connel.
Shortly after her birth Eliza sailed for Adelaide, South Australia where she was christened on 15 July 1841.
Her family moved around a lot and her siblings were born in New South Wales and Victoria.
Her father died in 1850 and on 30 August 1860 Eliza married John Stevenson Denny.
They had seven children, two who died in childhood.
John worked as the secretary of the Fourth Victorian Building Society until 1878 when he disappeared after committing embezzlement and forgery of between £8000–9000.
He was traced to California but when a Melbourne detective was dispatched to arrest him in 1881 he had disappeared.
John died of small pox, in Guaymos, Mexico, in 1886.
Eliza was living in Dunedin in 1882 and she remarried on 10 March 1888 in Melbourne to Thomas Henry Haskell, a widower and the secretary to an insurance company.
Later that year they sailed for Otago and when Eliza signed the suffrage petition they were living in Coney Rd, Allendale, St Clair, Dunedin.
She died at her home 'The Mount' in St Clair on 6 June 1912 and Thomas died in 1918, they are buried together 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
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
Family History SA https://www.familyhistorysa.org/colonists.html