Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Emma Owen was born about 1829 in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England –the daughter of Philip Owen, a labourer, and Lydia.
Her son George Owen was born in 1848 and she married Henry Cooper, a wheelwright, in 1852.
They had seven children, two who died in infancy, before the family emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1870s.
When Emma signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Gladstone in Invercargill.
Emma died at her home on 21 March 1907 and Henry died in 1915, they are buried in the family grave in the St Johns Cemetery, Invercargill.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Invercargill City Council https://icc.govt.nz
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