Nellie Smith was born at Lewinsbrook on the 17th December 1863, the 6th child of James Davis Smith and Jane Elizabeth Parker. She moved with her family to Singleton in 1875 and then to the Gulargambone district in 1881.

Nellie and the other Smith children went to school at Campsie at a Presbyterian school set up by Alexander Park and James Dalgeish. She and the younger children went to school in Singleton after their move there in 1875, where her older sister, Sarah Jane was a teacher.

Nellie married George Joseph Skinner on the 28th August 1888 at St, Barnabas Church in Coonamble and they had 11 children.