Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Emma Stokes was born about 1854 in Huntingdonshire, England.
She emigrated to Otago in 1873 on the “Zealandia” and she married farmer Burrows Irwin in 1876.
They had three children and lived in Warrington, Dunedin and Seacliff.
When Emma signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Park St, Kensington.
They later moved to Waikouaiti where they had a drapery store. After the store burned down in 1898 they moved to Middlemarch for a few years before returning to Dunedin.
Emma died at their home on 9 January 1938 and Burrows died in 1948 – they are buried in the family grave in St John’s Anglican Cemtery, Waikouaiti.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/