Our great Grandmother, Caroline Pedersen, was born in the fishing village of Nexø, Bornholm, in 1853.

She was the youngest of six children. (Photos of her family).

See an outline, or stamtavle, of the Descendants of Mogens Henningsen Bohn, Caroline's grandfather.

She sailed to America in about 1869 and lived in Warren, PA, with her older brother, Niels Mossin Pedersen (photo below). This seems to have been a destination for Bornholmers, and maybe other Danes, so I guess there was an enclave. After doing domestic work for several years, she took a train (we have her 1878 diary of the trip ) to California where she met and married "James Koford" (aka Jens O.A. Kofoed, or Kofod. See the Kofoed page.) They stayed in Oakland for the first years of their marriage.

Caroline's father, "Henning Peder Mogensen"* (also called Henning Mogensen Bohn) was born in 1810, in Nexø. He was a seaman, as was his father (Mogens Henningsen, b. 1783) and grandfather(Henning Hansen Bohne b. 1755).

Caroline's mother, Christine Marie Møller (b. 1813), is on the left. Although her "bonnet" looks almost bovine to us, let's try to realize that she would have looked strange to her contemporaries without it!

(*Note: Most surnames were derived from a system of "patronymics" based on one's father's given name:Danish women traditionally kept their maiden names when married.)

sister
Dorthea Marie Pedersen
(born 1837) m. Maurits Lorents Larsen