Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Amelia/Emily Forrest was born about 1834 in Scotland.
She emigrated to Australia in the mid 1850s and she married John Sanders in 1861 in Victoria.
They had a daughter the following year and they sailed for Otago soon after.
John appears to have sailed earlier as Amelia’s obituary says that after her arrival with her young daughter she walked from Dunedin to Glenore in two days and was 'the first woman and child on the Woolshed diggings.' When she arrived the river was in flood and she had to carry her daughter over 200 yards of fluming to cross the river.
The family lived at Glenore and a further seven children were born before John died in 1872.
Amelia remarried in 1876 to Thomas Davidson, a labourer - they had a daughter the following year.
Amelia signed the suffrage petition at Glenore – she died there on 27 September 1900 and Thomas died in 1902, they are buried with John Sanders in the Glenore Cemetery.
Amelia’s obituary said 'like all settlers she had great hardships to endure, and only one with untiring energy and shrewd sense would have been able to fight against them...She was of a reserved and retiring disposition, and though rarely leaving her own home, had a large circle of friends, by whom she was respected and esteemed for her sterling character.'
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au