Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Helen White was born about 1836 in South Leith, Midlothian, Scotland.
She married blacksmith, Thomas Robertson on 7 December 1858 in Edinburgh and they had one son before they emigrated to Otago in 1861 on the “Pladda”.
They had a further nine children after their arrival in the country, one appears to have died in infancy and their eight year old son William died in 1872 when he drowned while swimming in a dam near their home in Waihemo, near Palmerston.
They later lived in Balclutha before moving to Dunedin in 1884.
Thomas died in 1888 and when Helen signed the suffrage petition she was living with her daughter Isabella (See 149 Isabella Robertson) in Selwyn St, North East Valley.
Helen died on 16 July 1906 – she is buried with Thomas in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
