Finding Emily

My Journey into Suffragette History

It is with huge thanks to

Barbara at Projectkin

that I sort to uncover women suffragettes in my family tree, and through

Robin Stewart

at Genealogy Matters, the 31 Day Women in History Challenge started me off on this journey of discovery.

---

I had no idea I’d discover Emily Schulze’s signature on New Zealand’s 1893 women’s suffrage petition—a document that helped make New Zealand the first self-governing country to grant women the vote. Let alone find out that she was just one of four Papakura women who signed the petition.

I had been Googling suffragettes in New Zealand and used Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, to create a research plan. While taking a break, I set up my new iPhone 16 and activated Siri. Curious I asked ‘her,’ “what can you find on Women’s Suffrage in New Zealand, and in particular about Emily Schulze?” Well knock me down with a feather, Siri directed me to a website: Papakura Suffragetes! There, I found a detailed account of ‘my’ Emily on the Papakura Museums webpage.

Finding Emily wasn’t just about adding another name to my family tree. She was already on it, but I knew more about her husband Oswald than I did about her. It was about understanding how ordinary women became a part of extraordinary movements, often inspired by their own experiences with injustice. Emily’s story begins to unfold through electoral rolls, newspaper clippings, and her precious signature on sheet 402 of the Women’s Suffrage Petition at the Auckland Council Libraries. It shows how personal circumstances can drive someone toward social activism.

So here’s to Barbara at ProjectKin and Robin at Genealogy Matters for encouraging us to look beyond names and dates to find these women who were the change-makers in our family histories. And here’s to Emily, who helped change the world for generations of women to come.

Follow this link to read A Suffragette’s Story