See also Caversham research databases
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ellen Burgess was born about 1871 in County Kerry, Ireland – the daughter of George Francis Burgess, a bricklayer, and Elizabeth Lynch. (See 145 Mrs Burgess)
Mary emigrated to Otago in 1875 on the Margaret Galbraith with her mother and brother to join her father who had arrived earlier.
The family settled in Dunedin and when Mary signed the suffrage petition she was living with her family in Mount Pleasant, Caversham working as a tailoress.
She married Kenneth Clark McKenzie, a painter, in 1899 and they had seven children.
The family later moved to Wellington where Mary died in July 1952 and Kenneth died in 1955, they are buried together in the Karori 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
Wellington City Council https://wellington.govt.nz
Irish Genealogy https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/
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