Elizabeth was the third daughter of Ellen and John Middlebrook, born in December 1851 in Millbridge Yorkshire. She was at least the third generation of Elizabeth Middlebrooks, being named after an Aunt, and a Great Aunt . Elizabeth was 11 when she along with her parents and siblings left England and made the long journey to New Zealand aboard the Shalimar, arriving in December 1862.
Just 6 years later in 1868 she married George Douglas Hardy, and soon after they made their home in Duke Street ( later called Karaka Street), the same street her family had lived in since soon after her fathers death in 1866. Elizabeth was to give birth to at least 11 children, however tragically 5 of them died as infants or young children. In addition to her own 6 remaining children she also bought up her Grandson Frank Leslie ( Son of daughter Ellen Hardy) as her own child. By the late 1870s her husband George became a warder (and later chief attendant) at the Whau Lunatic Asylum. This may have prompted the family to move first to Bellwood Mt Eden and later to New Lynn and finally to Bollard Street Avondale where she lived for over 20 years .In later life George ( and probably Elizabeth) became members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church., her funeral was held at the Blockhouse Bay Seventh day Adventist Church after her death on March 8th 1943 at the grand age of 93.
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