New Zealand and the Women's Suffrage Petition This post is about one of the March themes for #12ancestors, that of "Joining Together". In New Zealand, in 1893, approximately one quarter of adult women (21 years and above) gave support to the petition for women's suffrage that was submitted to Parliament on 28 July. There was a total of 13 petitions, not all of which survived. However, the largest, containing about 24,000 names has been digitised. One Messervy name appears in the index, that of Charlotte G. Messervy, found on page 532 of the petition [1] . Information provided is address, Lawrence Street North, Opawa in the suburb of Opawa in the city of Christchurch. When you click on the sheet number, you are taken to a digital version of the actual sheet where Charlotte's name appeared. Charlotte was part of a movement of women that led to New Zealand being the first country to grant the vote to women. Today we are astonished that this was as late as 1