When Israel Emery Atkinson was born on 17 June 1839, in Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada, his father, Stephen Bamford Atkinson, was 25 and his mother, Rebecca Lewis Merrill, was 22. He married Arabella S Richardson on 19 May 1864, in Dorchester, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 3 daughters. He died on 12 April 1905, in Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada, at the age of 65, and was buried in Sackville Rural Cemetery, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada.