Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ellen Turnbull Moffitt was born in 1871 in South Otago – the daughter of James Moffitt and Helen Turnbull.
She married Rudolph George Nahkies, a shopkeeper from Germany, on 4 October 1892 at her father’s house at Waikaia Flat.
'After the ceremony the happy pair drove off to Riversdale, thence proceeding to Dunedin to spend their honeymoon.'
They had three children and were living in Waikaia when Ellen signed the suffrage petition.
In 1908 the business was put up for sale and in later years they retired to Gore.
Rudolph died in May 1942 and Ellen died later that year on 9 October, they are buried together in the Gore Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Gore District Council https://goredc.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