Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Margaret Ross was born about 1830 in Scotland.
She married James Gardiner on 12 November 1856 in Dunbartonshire and a short time later they sailed for Victoria, Australia.
They had four daughters in Victoria before they, again sailed, this time for Otago in 1864.
Their youngest daughter died shortly after their arrival and in the next three years they had two sons, one of who also died in infancy.
The family spent about three years at the Nokomai diggings before moving to Queenstown in 1869.
In 1880 James died in his sleep while at Macetown with his brother, his body was brought back to Queenstown and he was buried in the Queenstown Cemetery.
After James’ death Margaret ran a boarding house in Gorge Rd, Queenstown with her daughters and where she signed the suffrage petition.
Margaret died at Rossford House on 24 February 1910, she is buried with James in the Queenstown Cemetery.
Her obituary said 'she was of a very quiet disposition and essentially a home woman. Nevertheless, she befriended all she could and her sympathy made many happy.
Her religion was the religion of a loving wife and mother, a higher humanity'.
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
Queenstown Lakes District Council http://cemeteries.qldc.govt.nz/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
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