Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Isabella Paisley was born on 23 October 1857 in Lanarkshire, Scotland – the daughter of Robert Paisley and Margaret Cochrane.
She emigrated to Otago with her parents about 1858 and married John English Ryan, a blacksmith, on 7 July 1885 in Dunedin.
They had seven children and when Isabella signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Albany St.
John later worked as a school inspector and truant officer.
Isabella and John celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary in 1935.
John died in 1942 and Isabella died on 15 May the following year. They were both cremated and their ashes scattered.
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