suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Rix
Given names: 
Mrs
Given address: 
Romahapa
Sheet No: 106
Town/Suburb: 
Romahapa
City/Region: 
Otago
Notes: 

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Mary Ellen George was born in 1862 in Victoria, Australia – the daughter of Edward Christopher George, a carpenter, and Caroline Fortey.

When she was young her family sailed for Otago and settled in Dunedin.

Mary married James Arthur Rix, a school teacher, in 1882 and they had 11 children, two who died in childhood.

James taught at the Pureua School and Mary assisted him as the sewing mistress - Mary signed the suffrage petition at nearby Romahapa.

When James retired they moved to Dunedin where he died in 1919.

Mary died on 2 September 1948 at her daughter’s home in Dunedin, she is buried with James in the Owaka Cemetery.

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

BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.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

1 comment has been posted about Mrs Rix

What do you know?

Peter Bowen

Posted: 08 Apr 2022

James Arthur Rix was born in 1857 at Lambeth, London, England, the second son of James Rix (also a school teacher) and Sarah Sillis. (His older brother was Thomas Henry Rix - born in 1852 at Islington, London, England - who married Mary Elizabeth Roberts in 1877). The family appear to have moved from England to New Zealand in the mid 1860s. James Rix died on 8 April 1909 and his wife Sarah on 20 May 1906; both are buried in the Owaka cemetery.