When Jane Pauline Smith was born on 29 December 1861, in Fort Lawrence, Cumberland, Nova Scotia, Canada, her father, John Travis Smith, was 39 and her mother, Paulina Maud Cannon, was 31. She married Alonzo Alfonzo Pemberton on 15 July 1890, in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons. She died on 18 April 1903, in her hometown, at the age of 41.