Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Margaret Paterson was born on 23 February 1837 in Renfrewshire, Scotland – the daughter of Hugh Paterson, a wright, and Agnes Gilmour.
She married Walter Donald, a hosier and outfitter, on 19 June 1866 in Glasgow.
They had four children before Margaret emigrated to Otago in 1880 on the Canterbury - Walter had presumably travelled earlier.
When Margaret signed the suffrage petition the family were living in George St, Dunedin.
Margaret and Walter moved to Evan’s Flat near Lawrence in the 1900s, Walter died there in 1919, he is buried in the Lawrence Cemetery.
Margaret died on 18 July 1926, she is buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin.
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
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