Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Lilly Amelia Jay was born in 1863 in New Zealand – the daughter of Harry Jay, a carpenter, and Catherine McCormack (See 30 Mrs C Jay)
She grew up in Dunedin and she married William Stewart Steele on 22 October 1888 at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
They had one son who died aged two months before William died at their home in Ballarat in 1891.
When Lilly signed the suffrage petition she was back in Dunedin with her family in Leith Street.
She returned to Australia and married John Hugh Joseph O’Dea, a signwriter, in Sydney in 1927.
Lilly died in Sydney in 1942.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
NSW Government https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.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