Thomas Nash Immigrated to the New World in 1637. His fifth great grandson Jim Nash homesteaded with his father and brothers in the “Dakota boom” in 1883. Four year old Ida Kate Christensen crossed the Atlantic from Denmark with her family in 1872. In 1888, they married in Dakota Territory uniting these two distinct families.
The Nashes and the Christensens
The Nashes and the Christensens have two distinct histories, as outlined below. But in the Dakota years, they were one. Ida Kate was “Grandma Nash” to my mother, her siblings and her cousins. Ida Kate’s brother Fred married Jim’s sister Ella and lived on an adjoining farm in Carroll Township, Charles Mix County. Jim was Charles Mix County Treasurer at the time my grandmother was born in 1898 - a letter from Jim to Ida Kate the year before, on the Treasurer’s letterhead, is on the cover of this website .
So I have combined the two families under one heading. There are separate pages for the oral histories of my mother - Dorothy Ofstedahl (Laird) and my aunt, Lois Ofstedahl (Grupp). They each talk about their grandparents, but also about the families of each grandparent. While they were Ofstedahls, the family surrounding them in their childhood was from their mother’s side.
I will - over time - includes pages on the immigrant Christensens and Olsons, and their ancestors on the island of Lolland in Denmark southwest of Copenhagen. The Nashes were an American story - among the original settlers of New Haven, Connecticut - and with almost each new generation moving to western Massachusetts, early Vermont, northern New York State, then homesteading in northern Illinois in the 1840’s - and on to Dakota Territory in 1883.
Eventually, there will be a rich series of pages in the Nash - Christensen section. I will start with the oral histories of Lois and Dotty.
The Nashes . . . The Christensens . . .
Charles Nash, who lived his life in Charles Mix County, South Dakota, was my grandmother’s first cousin - and was an early Nash family historian. In the early 1960’s he published the Nash genealogy below, which listed the Nash history - but focused on the generations in South Dakota and beyond. I have posted his genealogy as its own page on this site to provide details on the Nash ancestry and history.
An 1853 Genealogy by the Rev. Sylvester Nash, which a family member of Charles completely hand-copied for him from the printed version in an out-of-state library - detailed how the Thomas Nash came to America for religious freedom. They fled England, spent time in Leyden in the Netherlands, and then were in the flock of the Rev. John Davenport in founding New Haven, Connecticut. Connecticut histories give Thomas credit for building the first clock in the New World.
In 2003, the “Nash Family Updated Descendants of Thomas Nash of New Haven, Connecticut, Circa 1640” was compiled by Deborah Lee Rothery. I contributed to this volume, although I became listed as “John C. Laird” in the references. It was a Herculean effort by Deborah, and is in Two Volumes. The fact that Charles and others had done works taking the Nashes forward past 1853 were included.
Thomas’ son, “Lieutenant” Timothy Nash, was born in the Netherlands, and married Rebeckah Stone in Connecticut, the daughter of the Rev. Samuel Stone, who helped found Hartford, Connecticut and followed the Rev. Thomas Hooker as lead minister of the Hartford church. Samuel is shown in many histories, and John and I found a statue of him when we visited the Hartford church burying ground in 2007.
The Nash descendants moved across America with almost every generation - as different parts were settled by Europeans. Ephraim Nash, Timothy’s son, lived in Hadley, Massachusetts. Aaron Nash, Ephraim’s son, settled in Brattleboro, Vermont. Aaron’s son Oliver, settled in Ellisburgh, New York. Oliver’s son, Oliver Jr., homesteaded in Chemung, Illinois. And Oliver Jr.’s son, George - the father of my great-grandfather Jim Nash - homesteaded with his sons in Charles Mix County, Dakota Territory.
They intermarried with different historic American families such as that of Rev. Samuel Stone, mentioned above - as well as intermarrying with the families of Smith, Kellogg, Deming, Waite, Pierce, Hooker, Carpenter (there’s already a page on this website for them), and Blodgett. I have done research on many of these surnames as well.
Charles Nash authored “Recollections”. His mother Amy Morse Nash, left behind a journal. Mabel Toland Nash, married to Jim and Ida' Kate’s son Ben, left her recollections. A religious-based prairie academy - Ward Academy - was attended by almost all Nash children of that generation - and there are histories of that school. Many photos and other items of the Charles Mix County period were left behind.
This paints a story that it will take many pages on this website to tell. I will start by posting the oral histories of my mother and aunt - which describe their lives growing up in South Dakota, and include references to many family members. It will take years to get other pages up with the Nash story - but I intend to do it, bit by bit.
Ida Kate Christensen (Nash) was the matriarch of our Dakota family. Born in Torslunde, Denmark on the island of Lolland southwest of Copenhagen, she was the youngest of seven children in 1872 at the time her family set out for America. An eighth child was born on that trip, and the 1880 census listed his birth place as the “Atlantic Ocean”. Ida Kate overlapped with me, shown below together in Crockett, California - likely about 1951, the year of her death.
Uncovering the story of Ida Kate’s family was an initial challenge. The name “Christensen” is like the combination of Jones and Smith in Denmark. But eventually, I found a clipping of the obituary of Ida Kate’s brother “Chris” Christensen, and it mentioned Torslunde, Denmark. The 1875 Kansas census and the 1880 U. S. Census listed her youngest brother Henry’s birth place as “the Atlantic Ocean”. Then I found in brother Fred’s citizenship papers the fact that he arrived through Quebec. All that gave me the hints that I needed to put the story together - I found the Christensens in Quebec ship passenger records of 1872, and I found the baptism records for the Christensen siblings in Torslunde, Denmark church records. I took the story from there.
The Danish naming system was similar to that of Norway (described on other pages on this website), and it broke down about the years that the Christensens came to America. Hans was the son of Chris Christensen and Karen Madsdatter. His parents must have been poor, as he was taken in by Frederick Maasberg, and was even shown with the Maasberg surname as he immigrated. His brother Niels, born the year after Hans in 1830, was taken in by someone else and immigrated fifteen years before Hans and his family, and settled in Mariadahl, Kansas.
Christiane Rasmussen, Ida Kate’s mother and Hans’ wife, was the daughter of Rasmus Olsen and Dorthe Pedersdatter. Between two wives, Rasmus had eleven children. Four others besides Christiane immigrated to America - and they settled in Wisconsin. Because of the breakdown of the naming system - some used the surname Rasmussen, others used the surname Olsen.
These family locations explain why Hans and his family alternated between Kansas and Wisconsin in their first years in America. Hans and Christiane had eight children. The oldest, Marie, remained in Lolland, married Otto Kruger, and has many descendants still living in Denmark (the footer of the front page of this website shows Otto Kruger’s shop in Nysted, Denmark). The other seven children all came to America, and scattered over the Dakotas, Kansas, and then California.
The story of Ida Kate’s family can be traced three generations back in Denmark - and across America. Ida Kate’s twin brothers, Chris and John, were photographers for awhile in Kansas. There are many photographs to go with newspaper articles, old letters, and other family records - as well as connections with descendants of Hans’ brother Niels and of Christiane’s siblings - that tell the story of this family. As with the Nashes, there is much to tell - and it will take quite awhile for me to get the pages up with the Christensen story - but as with the Nashes, I intend to do it bit by bit. The oral histories of my mother and aunt - which I will start with - mention Christensen family members and tell of their love for Ida Kate, who was very much in their lives as children.