Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ellen O’Brien was born about 1865.
She married Andrew Cunningham Patton, a miner, in 1891.
They had six children, one who died in infancy, and when Mary signed the suffrage petition they were living in Crushington near Reefton.
Andrew’s sister also signed the petition at Crushington. (See 251 Marion Watson)
Andrew died in 1914 at a sanatorium in Nelson – he is buried in the Wakapuaka Cemetery.
After Andrew’s death Mary lived in Auckland, then, in the 1940s, in Dunedin with her daughter who was a school teacher.
She died at her son’s home in Invercargill on 20 January 1942 and is buried in the Invercargill Eastern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
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