Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Helen Crawford Baxter was born on 28 December 1857 in Auchinleck, Ayrshire, Scotland – the daughter of Robert Baxter and Isabella Howat.
She emigrated to Otago with her parents in 1860 on the Pladda and they lived at West Taieri.
Helen married John Neill, a storeman, on 20 October 1880 at the West Taieri Presbyterian Church in Outram.
They had five children and when Helen signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Outram. They later moved to nearby Glenore.
Helen died at her daughter’s home in Outram on 11 May 1920, she is probably buried in the West Taieri Cemetery but there is no record.
John died in 1931 in Dunedin, he is buried in the West Taieri 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/