Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Christina Hendry was born about 1838 in Perthshire, Scotland – the daughter of James Hendry.
She married James Purvis in June 1855 in Victoria, Australia. They had four children in Australia before they sailed for Otago in 1863.
They had a further 11 children in New Zealand – four of these children died in infancy.
They settled, at first, at Saddle Hill overlooking the Taieri Plain before moving to Kaiwera, south east of Gore.
At the time that Christina signed the suffrage petition in Gore she gave her occupation in the electoral roll as “farmer”.
Christina died at her daughter’s home in Dunedin on 18 June 1913 – she is buried in the Pukerau Cemetery.
James died in 1915 in Oamaru – he is buried in the Oamaru 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
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au