29 April 1844 89 Paterson Street Launceston Tasmania Australia 1. Edward Hugh Fitzgerald; 2. William Holman Hunt 2. Lyla Blanche, Edith Holman, William Mervyn, Arthur Erskine, Leslie Dean, Charles Willingham, Cyril, Herbert Clive & a girl

Mrs Emma Sarah Charlotte Hunt was born in Launceston on 29 Apr 1844 to William Matthew Dean (1800-1892), a butcher, and his second wife Emma Blanchard Houghton who were married in 1841. Emma was the second of ten children of this union; he had six children from his first marriage. Emma was christened at Christ Church, Longford. On 4 Jun 1862 at the age of 18 Emma married Edward Hugh Fitzgerald, a clerk, at St Joseph's Catholic Church, Launceston. They did not have any children.

Emma was a widow when she married William Holman Hunt at Chalmers Free Church on 6 Jan 1867. William had a successful career in the Public Service, progressing from a junior clerk at the Launceston Post Office to the collector of taxes, and shortly before his death was appointed as Commissioner of Police. The Hunts had nine children between 1868 and 1890. William Mervyn and Leslie both died in Jun 1882, aged seven and four respectively. Lyla and Arthur also appear in the Family Album. At the time of the Exhibition she was living at 89 Paterson St.

Emma's passport to the Tasmanian Exhibition of 1891-92 has survived and is illustrated in the Hunt family history written by her great grandson Peter Muir, Van Diemen's Land Ancestors (1985). Emma was a soprano in the Exhibition choir. She was the founder and sometime treasurer of the Blanket Loan Society formed in 1887 and was involved with the International Council of Women. After William's death in May 1906 Emma moved to Melbourne. She moved back to Launceston four years later, but died about a fortnight after her return, on 5 Oct 1910. See The Examiner 2 Sep 2006, p. 35.

Barbara Valentine Sep 2006