Emma Louise Hirt was the youngest child of Johannes Gottlieb Hirt and Maria Hirt (née Kaiser). Her father migrated from Germany to California and then to Victoria. Starting as a gold-digger in Ballarat, he later became a successful boot-maker. Maria Kaiser was born in Dreysa, a village near Bautzen, in Saxony, and migrated to Australia at the age of 15. She and Johannes married in 1859 and she died in 1934.

When the gold ran out, they and their nine children moved to 101 Eyre Street, Ballarat. Some years later, Johannes and Maria moved to Thorpdale, in Gippsland, where he bought a cherry orchard. The older children who had not married stayed in Ballarat, acting as housekeepers and looking after the younger ones who were still at school. Much later, the older sisters, Lin and Anna, who were widows, and Crin and Paula, who were spinsters, looked after one or two of us children in the same house during our school holidays.

On 19 August, 1883, when Johannes was about 70 and Maria about 50 years old, they had another child, who was christened Emma Louise. After her husband's death in 1898, Maria moved back to 101 Eyre Street and Emma Louise (names she hated) went to primary school and then to Grenville College, a co-educational secondary school in Ballarat. In 1906 she began training as an infants’ teacher at the Melbourne Teachers' College and met Charles Fenner, also a resident at the College. Charles responded to her dislike of her given names by calling her 'Pegasus', shortened to 'Peggy' or 'Peg'. After completing her training she taught at the primary school in Inglewood, northwest of Bendigo (Figure 13.3). Late in 1910 she bought her wedding dress in Bendigo. They were married in Ballarat on 4 January, 1911, and went to live in Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne. Charles taught and continued his studies at Melbourne University and their first child, Charles Lyell (named after the famous English geologist) was born in Fitzroy on 17 August, 1912.