Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Pearston was born on 10 December 1866 in Glasgow, Scotland - the daughter of William Pearston, a Grocer, and Jessie McDonald. Mary’s father died in 1876 and in 1878 her mother married John Cooper Shearer. The family emigrated to Otago on the Otago in 1879, and lived in Drummond in Southland. Mary's sister Kate also signed sheet 153 of the suffrage petition.
Mary married Robert Lindsay, a farmer, in 1892 and they had five children. The Lindsays lived in Waimatuku in Southland, later retiring to Invercargill.
Robert died in 1920 and Mary died on 7 October 1929. They are buried together in the Calcium Cemetery in Southland.
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
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
Southland District Council https://www.southlanddc.govt.nz
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