Helen Ivory

Biography contributed by Mrs Colyn Storer, Sydney, Australia

Helen Ivory was born Ellen Stothert Bartrum on 16 January 1855 in Heathcote Valley, Christchurch, Canterbury, NZ, daughter of George Stothert Bartum and Sarah nee Pursey the third of nine children. Her name is recorded as both Ellen and Helen. Her mother Sarah also signed the Petition, sheet 240.

She firstly married Edward Barnard on 26 February 1874 in Canterbury who died the next year in Wellington. Secondly, she married John Ivory on 13 Nov 1878.   

John was the elder son of William Emms Ivory who had emigrated from Norfolk England in 1855 on the Cashmere, along with his brother in law William Stapleforth and wife Hannah and family. William’s brother Aquila and sisters Matilda (Doggett) and Sarah (Jennings) followed over the next few years. Many of the women of these families also signed the Petition. 

They had four children, Margaret Helen 1879, George 1885, Grace 1888 and William 1890-1918.

Her husband John worked on various farms for some years before joining his father William Emms Ivory in his large nursery at Rangiora for the rest of his working life. He retired to Opawa in Christchurch where he died on 10 February 1910 and was buried at the Baptist Cemetery at Rangiora.

Helen later lived at Durham Street Sydenham and then at 125 Holly road, St. Albans where she died on 8 January 1938 and was buried alongside her husband. Her children Margret, George and Grace survived her.

Many of the Ivory family relations also signed the Petition. Her husband’s first cousins, four sisters, Maria Keir (sheet 241), Hannah Little (318), Rebecca Bradley (262), Lucy Harman (237) and Rebecca’s daughters, Lucy Emily and Maud M Davies both sheet 262. Also, Margaret Jennings (nee Stapleforth) sheet 241.

References

Her Parents: 

Births, Marriage and family in England – Ancestry.com.au

Their emigration to NZ: 

On Stag arriving Lyttleton 17 May 1852

Birth, Marriages, Deaths: 

https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz

Electoral Rolls: 

Ancestry.com.au New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981 

Death, Burial: 

PapersPast

And Obituaries for her husband PapersPast February 1910