Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Margaret Thomson was born about 1836 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
She married Alexander Garrie/Garry, a sawyer, on 2 January 1854 in Glasgow and they had two children before they emigrated to Otago in 1858 on the Strathfieldsaye.
They settled in Port Chalmers - Alexander died in 1861 when his boat upturned while he was 'going up to Dunedin for flour', he is buried in the Southern Cemetery.
Margaret’s son Alexander took up land in the Owaka district and when Margaret signed the suffrage petition she was living at, nearby, Tahatika with her daughter Elizabeth. (See 137 E Garry) Margaret moved to Dunedin in the 1910s where she died on 23 January 1917, she is buried with two of her brothers in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Sources
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
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
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