Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Emily Harriet Dodd was born in 1856 in Victoria, Australia – the daughter of Robert James Dodd and Caroline Jane Stone.
She came to New Zealand and she married Charles Shepard, a compositor, in 1877.
They lived in Dunedin and had four children in the next four years, including twin sons Sydney and Victor.
Charles died in June 1883 aged 27, 'after a long and painful illness' and Sydney died in August the same year.
Victor died of croup the following year and when Emily signed the suffrage petition she was living with her two eldest children in Grant St.
She died at the Dunedin Hospital on 9 April 1896 - she is buried with Charles and their sons in the Southern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au