Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Emma Skeates was born in 1857 in Bristol, England – the daughter of Edward Skeates, a saddler, and Emma Summers.
She emigrated to New Zealand in the 1880s and, soon after her arrival, she married William Andrew Ball Rothwell, a farmer, on 10 December 1885 in Hamilton.
They do not appear to have had any children and when Emma signed the suffrage petition they were living in Auckland - William’s occupation was 'merchant'.
They did not stay long in Auckland – in 1896 they were farming again in the Waikato.
Emma died at Auckland on 10 May 1922.
William re-married the following year, he died in 1942.
Emma is buried with William in the Purewa Cemetery, Auckland.
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
Purewa Cemetery https://www.purewa.co.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