DH: [name_m]Edd[/name_m] [name_u]Dale[/name_u] [name_m]Nelson[/name_m] (27)
DW: [name_f]Karis[/name_f] Imlah ([name_m]Lynch[/name_m]) [name_m]Nelson[/name_m] (24)
DD: [name_f]Ellen[/name_f] [name_m]Micaiah[/name_m] [name_m]Nelson[/name_m] (6)
DS: [name_m]Simon[/name_m] [name_m]Sebastian[/name_m] [name_m]Nelson[/name_m] (5)
DD: [name_f]Hulda[/name_f] [name_f]Esta[/name_f] [name_m]Nelson[/name_m] (2)
[name_m]Edd[/name_m]'s [name_u]Story[/name_u]
[name_m]Edd[/name_m] [name_u]Dale[/name_u] [name_m]Nelson[/name_m] was born [name_m]Edd[/name_m] [name_u]Dale[/name_u] Sparda, on [name_u]January[/name_u] 20, 1841, the only child of [name_m]John[/name_m] and [name_f]Mary[/name_f] Sparda in Manhattan, [name_m]New[/name_m] [name_m]York[/name_m]. [name_f]Mary[/name_f] died in childbirth, leaving [name_m]John[/name_m] to raise baby [name_m]Edd[/name_m] on his own. Unfortunately, [name_m]John[/name_m] was unable to support [name_m]Edd[/name_m] on what he made, and had to make the hard decision to give his three-month-old child up for adoption. [name_m]Edd[/name_m] was adopted a short time later by a middle-class couple, [name_m]Samuel[/name_m] and [name_f]Alice[/name_f] [name_m]Nelson[/name_m], with whom he lived happily and comfortably, until in 1851, when [name_m]Samuel[/name_m] and [name_f]Alice[/name_f] died in a house fire, leaving a ten-year-old [name_m]Edd[/name_m] an orphan. Due to having no other family to take him in, [name_m]Edd[/name_m] was sent to an orphanage. Three years later, in 1854, a thirteen-year-old [name_m]Edd[/name_m] was put on an “orphan train” to Dowagiac, Michigan, along with other orphaned, homeless and abandoned children, due to the orphanage being overcrowded. After arriving in Michigan, [name_m]Edd[/name_m] was adopted out to a family in the Midwest, where he helped out on the family’s farm. In his new hometown, he met and befriended his future wife, [name_f]Karis[/name_f] Imlah [name_m]Lynch[/name_m] from [name_m]Boston[/name_m], Massachusetts, who turned out to be another “orphan train” rider. [name_u]Seven[/name_u] years later, in 1861, [name_m]Edd[/name_m], age 20, and [name_f]Karis[/name_f], age 17, married and left the Midwest, moving back to [name_m]Edd[/name_m]'s hometown of Manhattan, where they helped protect escaped slaves to freedom during the Civil War.
[name_f]Karis[/name_f]’ [name_u]Story[/name_u]
[name_f]Karis[/name_f] Imlah [name_m]Nelson[/name_m] (née [name_m]Lynch[/name_m]) was born [name_f]Karis[/name_f] Imlah Morin on [name_f]May[/name_f] 24, 1844, the youngest of four children of [name_m]Levi[/name_m] and [name_f]Hannah[/name_f] Morin, in [name_m]Boston[/name_m], Massachusetts. When [name_f]Karis[/name_f] was just five months old, both her parents died in a tenement fire, leaving all four siblings orphaned. The family [name_f]Karis[/name_f] and her siblings had took them in, but for a short time, as they couldn’t afford to feed four growing children on their income. Because of this, [name_f]Karis[/name_f]’ relatives were forced to send the Morin siblings to an orphanage, where they all got adopted into different families. [name_f]Karis[/name_f] was adopted by a loving, wealthy couple, [name_m]Alfred[/name_m] and [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f] Silverton, who were unable to have children. The following years of little [name_f]Karis[/name_f]’ life were the happiest, until, at age 5, the Silverton’s mysteriously died at a party they had been hosting in their home; it had been speculated that they had been poisoned, but the murderer’s identity remained, and still remains, unknown. [name_f]Karis[/name_f] was removed from the Silverton estate and placed in another orphanage, and her last name was changed to [name_m]Lynch[/name_m] (the surname of the orphanage’s director), supposedly to “protect the child’s identity from the Silverton’s killer”. At age ten, [name_f]Karis[/name_f] was put on an “orphan train” to Dowagiac, Michigan, due to overcrowding at the orphanage. After arriving in Michigan, [name_f]Karis[/name_f] was adopted out to a family in the Midwest, where she helped out on the family’s farm but was also treated as one of the other children, being given an education, sharing a room with one of her foster sisters, and a loving environment. In her new hometown, she met and befriended her future husband, [name_m]Edd[/name_m] [name_u]Dale[/name_u] [name_m]Nelson[/name_m] from Manhattan, [name_m]New[/name_m] [name_m]York[/name_m], who turned out to be another “orphan train” rider. [name_u]Seven[/name_u] years later, in 1861, [name_m]Edd[/name_m], age 20, and [name_f]Karis[/name_f], age 17, married and left the Midwest, moving back to [name_m]Edd[/name_m]'s hometown of Manhattan, where they helped protect escaped slaves to freedom during the Civil War.