The Nielsen Children

Brief Overview

Laurits Rasmus, Ida Margaretha, Emma Elizabeth and Rasmus Nielsen.

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Immigrant Babes

Laurits Rasmus (born in 1886), Ida Margaretha (1888), Emma Elizabeth (1890) and Rasmus Nielsen were all born in Harlan, Iowa. Their parents came from the opposite ends of Denmark. Father Niels Rasmussen Nielsen was a journeyman ship’s carpenter from Marstal on the island of Ærø; their mother, Ida Nicoline Hansen, came from Ydby parish in Thisted County in far northwestern Jutland. Both immigrated in the mid-1880s. Ida Nicoline was widowed young and ran a boarding house in Kimballton to make ends meet. One of her boarders was a photographer who took these posed pictures of her children. 

  • Laurits Nielsen. Photograph courtesy of Louise Gustafson, Kennewick WA and Trilby L. Gustafson, Birkerød, Denmark

  • Ida. Photographs courtesy of Louise Gustafson, Kennewick WA and Trilby L. Gustafson, Birkerød, Denmark

  • Emma. Photograph courtesy of Louise Gustafson, Kennewick WA and Trilby L. Gustafson, Birkerød, Denmark

  • Laurits and Rasmus Hansen. Photograph courtesy of Louise Gustafson, Kennewick WA and Trilby L. Gustafson, Birkerød, Denmark