Margaret Thomae was born on June 10, 1901. It has been difficult to find information about Margaret. I have tried to piece together some of the clues that I have found.

I believe that Margaret was  the daughter of Friederike (do not know her maiden name) and Jakob Thomae.

In the 1930 census, Margaret states that her birthplace was Romania, but also lists in that same census record that her language spoken was German. (Her husband Nils also states that his mother tongue is German.) She states that in 1930 she is 28 years old, and she lives in Ohio. In this same census her husband’s occupation is recorded as a draftsman working for a Steel Company.

Note that Margaret lists her date of immigration as 1921. This would have made her a young woman of 20 when she arrived in the states.

By the time of the 1940 census, Margaret has changed her birth place to Austria (previous records stated it was Romania) Her husband Nils lists his birth country as Sweden (in the 1930 census he had stated his birthplace was Germany.) Even though Nils lists his birthplace as Germany in one census, I was able to locate Swedish index birth records. Here is a recap:

Margaret was 23 years old when she gave birth to her son Robert Nelson Thornbladh. She was 28 years old when she had her daughter, Sonja Greta Thornbladh.

Margaret died on April 14, 1975, in Fort Pierce, Florida, at the age of 73. Nils died at the age of 83 in 1980.

listing above is from the Palm Beach Post 15 Apr 1975

Note from Kurt Thornbladh about his grandmother: “She had a social security card. They left the Austrian Hungarian empire and went to Canada. I saw an old photo of WWI soldiers sitting and drinking wine . Grandmother didn’t know who they were except to say they were the Austrians. Grandmother didn’t know her father.”

Notes from Kurt Thornbladh about his grandfather: “He was the purser on the Drotningholm [sp?]. Whether he had an understanding with the ships master I don’t know. He had a fight with his father before i do know.”