Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Emily Jane McIvor was born about 1862, possibly in New Zealand.
She married George McKay Hunt, a Cobb & Co coach driver, on 1 May 1883 in the Waikaia Parish.
They had seven children, one who died in infancy, and when Emily signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Waikaia.
George died at the Southland Hospital in 1901, he is buried in the Waikaia Cemetery.
'It is needless to say that much sympathy is felt for Mrs Hunt and her family in their bereavement; but this sympathy will require to take a practical shape. There has never been a more sorrowful or more deserving case. The children left are young, and Mrs Hunt herself has been a helpless cripple for several years. So far as we can learn they are totally unprovided for'.
A subscription was started to raise money for the family which reached at total of £120 9s 8p and it was decided that 10s per week should be given to the family so that the 'allowance will be available for well nigh six years, by which time most of the children will be old enough to render material assistance to those who will be dependent upon them'.
Emily was still living in Waikaia in 1912 when she was declared bankrupt owing £53 9s 9d.
This is last sign of Emily in the records - what became of her after this is unknown.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/