Pvt. Nora Vilhelmine Thomsen
(1902 - 1981)
Profile
Pvt. Nora V. Thomsen enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1943. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War.
Nora Vilhelmine Thomas was born 20 March 1902, to Juliane Thomsen, who was an unmarried maid at the time. The father was presumed to be farmhand Kristian Vilhelm Nielsen.[1] Her mother married Kristian Jørgensen in 1905,[2] but Thomsen does not seem to have lived with her mother. At the time of her confirmation in 1916, she was in foster care.[3] Her mother died in 1918.[4]
She emigrated to the United States in 1926 arriving in New York from Copenhagen onboard SS Hellig Olav on 24 November 1926. Her final destination is Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a cousin Christian Andersen.[5]
She worked as a servant living in Hennepin, Minneapolis, in 1930.[6] On 14 December 1932, she was naturalised as a citizen of the United States.[7] In 1940, she worked as a waitress in the house of Bella R. Wyman,[8] the widow of Oliver C. Wyman, who was a founder of Wyman Partridge & Co. and a leader in the commercial life of Minneapolis from the 1870s to his death in 1923.[9]
Thomsen enlisted as a Private (A-706855) in the Women’s Army Corps in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 1 December 1943.[10] There is no information on her service during the war available, but in 1947 she served at Fort Riley, Kansas.[11] She is presumed, thus, to have been a Army WAC. She was discharged on 25 March 1949.[12]
Thomsen died on 23 June 1981 in Los Angeles, California.[13]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Vidstrup sogn.
[2] DNA: Parish register, Vennebjerg sogn.
[3] DNA: Parish register, Taars sogn.
[4] DNA: Parish register, Vrå sogn.
[5] Ancestry: New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957.
[6] Ancestry: 1930 United States Federal Census.
[7] Ancestry: Minnesota, Federal Naturalization Records, 1880-1920.
[8] Ancestry: 1940 United States Federal Census.
[9] Oliver C. Wyman, Founder of Wyman, Partridge & Co., Dies, Star Tribune, 2 Oct 1923, p. 1.
[10] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[11] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[12] Ancestry: U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010.
[13] Ancestry: California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997.