Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Eliza Ellen/Helen Chiles was born in 1858 in Worcestershire, England – the daughter of Samuel Chiles, an agricultural labourer, and Elizabeth Nash.
She emigrated to Otago with her family in 1874 on the Asia and they settled in Waikouaiti where she married Frederick William Beal on 4 August 1875.
They had a son the following year before Frederick died, in 1878, in Waikouaiti.
Helen re-married in 1880 to John Wynne Griffiths and had a further two children. John died in 1888 after which Helen and the children moved to Dunedin.
When Helen signed the suffrage petition she was living in North East Valley.
She died at her home on 4 October 1939 and is buried in the St John’s Anglican Cemetery, Waikouaiti.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
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