Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Grant was born about 1846 in Aberdeen, Scotland.
She came to New Zealand in the 1860s and married William Forrest Smyth, a successful miner and mine owner, in 1873.
They appear to have had at least four of their 11 children before their marriage, two of their children died in early childhood.
When Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Lawrence.
William died in 1911 and Mary died on 9 October 1924, they are buried in the family grave in the Lawrence Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Interment.net http://www.interment.net/data/nz/otago/lawrence