Her birth was registered in the September quarter of 1873 in the Louth district. She was baptised 20 August 1873 at Louth, a daughter of Alexander Johnson and Hannah formerly Stevenson.
In the 1881 census she was living at home aged 7.
In the 1901 census of The Galtress (?), Market Place, Easingwold, there is an Emma Johnson, single, aged 27 and born at Louth, a governess in the household of a solicitor, F.I.H. Robinson, aged 42 and born at Easingwold.
In 1905 she was named in her father, Alexander’s will as Emma Harnack, so presumably was married between 1901 and 1905.