Emily was born on 11 June 1852 in New Plymouth and she was the second daughter of James and Jane CLIMO. She lived with her family at Tataraimaka until the evacuation to Nelson in 1860. By the time of her marriage to Roger POPE in 1867, the CLIMO clan were living Mahakipawa in the Pelorus Sound. Roger POPE was born in England and arrived in New Plymouth as an infant with his parents Richard and Mary Ann, on board the Timandra in 1842. Said to have been trained in the Taranaki Militia prior to the war of 1860, Roger knew the Taranaki landscape well, including all the rivers and streams in the district. Soon he left for Canvastown with his three older brothers to establish a sawmill in the Wakamarina Valley. With Emily's older sister Elizabeth Catherine already married to George POPE, Emily and Roger spent much time together over the years before they married. They had a family of seven ? three daughters and four sons, all of whom were born in the Havelock area where Roger was the engineer at Brownlee?s Blackball Mill. They soon moved north to Rata, bringing with them their daughters Mary Jane(who married John Bright), and Celia (who married Jack Fraser). Though the year of their arrival is not certain, it is thought that Emily and Roger?s daughters came to be with Emily, who was very ill.

In 1897, Emily began her long fight against cancer, but sadly it was a battle bravely lost as she finally succumbed in Wanganui Hospital on 05 April 1902. She is buried in Tutotara Cemetery in Rata. Roger POPE made his home with his daughters and took up work on the railway at Rata in a gang that included his son-in-law, Jack Fraser and his cousin Frederick Johnson CLIMO, his Uncle Richard's eldest son. Roger died in 1930 at the age of 89 years old and is buried in Ohura Cemetery.