See also Caversham research databases
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Helen/Ellen Whiting was born in 1849 in Warwickshire, England – the daughter of Isaac Whiting, an agricultural labourer, and Mary Bellamy.
Her mother died in 1859 and her father re-married in 1875 to Emma Hunt. (See 40 Emma Whiting)
Ellen married William Bragg, a carpenter, on 4 October 1870 in Aston, Warwickshire.
They had two children before the family emigrated to Otago in 1874 on the James Nicol Fleming.
They settled in Dunedin where they had a further five children, one who died in infancy.
In the late 1880s the family went to Victoria, Australia where their last child was born in 1892.
After this they returned to Dunedin and when Ellen signed the suffrage petition they were living in Cargill Rd, Caversham.
In 1898 William was declared insolvent – he died in 1904.
Ellen died at her son’s home in Dunedin on 12 January 1940 – she is buried with William in the family grave in the Southern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
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