Notes provided by Helen Edwards, who has carried out extensive research on the women who signed Sheet 156, including mapping where they lived. Download pdf of this research here.
Elcia Ritchie Duncan [Elsie Duncan, Roslyn] (No. 16)
Land description: Allotment 11, Block 2, Township of Roslyn. Address: 22 (now 28) Michie Street. Age in 1893: 31
Elcia Ritchie, known as Elsie, was born in Russell Street, Dunedin, in 1862. Her parents were born in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire; Catherine Don (No. 14) in 1840 and William Duncan, a stone mason, about 1839. They emigrated on the Storm Cloud in 1860. Elsie and her mother signed the petition at the same time. Elsie would have been preoccupied at the time with her forthcoming marriage in April. She married Frank Kettle, the youngest son of Charles Kettle, the New Zealand Company’s surveyor, and architect of Dunedin’s town plan.
Frank’s sister Elizabeth was the first European girl born in Dunedin. Frank was the secretary of the Otago Dock Trust, and a land agent. Elsie and Frank had four children between 1895 and 1904, probably born at 29 High Street. The family moved to 75 Princes Street, Musselburgh, and remained there. Their daughter, Elsie Amelia, a talented pianist, and piano teacher, in this musical family, fell ill and died in 1913, aged 18. Elsie died on 14 October 1944, aged 85, and is buried in the Southern Cemetery with her daughters. Frank died in 1955, at the age of 94.