Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Emma Lilford was born in 1872 in Victoria, Australia – the daughter of Charles Ilford and Clarette Izzey.
She married Thomas McIntosh Hardy in Victoria in 1891 and they came to Southland soon after.
They had seven children and lived at Redan then at Glenham, both south of Mataura where Emma signed the suffrage petition.
Thomas worked, for a time, as a ganger on the railway line. His work took them to Orepuki and Tapanui before they settled in Invercargill.
Thomas died in 1943 and Emma died on 13 August 1946 – they are buried together in the Invercargill Eastern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Invercargill City Council https://icc.govt.nz
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au