Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ann Simpson was born in about 1856 and she married Charles Sheffield in 1875 in New Zealand. They had four children before Charles left the family around 1884.
When she signed the suffrage petition Mary was living with her family in Maitland St, Dunedin. She married John Donaldson, a miner, in 1899 and they lived in Lawrence.
John died in 1922 and sometime after this Mary went to live near family in Te Kuiti in the North Island.
She died on 7 January 1947 and is buried in the Old Te Kuiti 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
Waitomo District Council http://www.waitomo.govt.nz