Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Emily Ann Wheller was born in 1844 in Marylebone, London – the daughter of Charles Wheller, a railway messenger, and Caroline Hayward.
She married Jabez Bigwood, a railway employee, in 1867 and they had three children before the family emigrated to New Zealand about 1873.
Their son William died after their arrival in 1874 and they had a further nine children, three who died in infancy.
The family lived in Invercargill, Winton then in Waikiwi near Invercargill where Jabez worked as a storekeeper.
When Emily signed the suffrage petition they were living in Bluff.
Jabez died in 1922 and Emily died in July 1924, they are buried together in the Bluff Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
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