Irene Nielsen (McKittrick)

Irene was the only surviving child of James and Sarah McKittrick. Her sisters, Elizabeth and Maud, both died in infancy and a fourth sibling was stillborn. Irene grew up in Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland. She lived and went to school in the Sandy Row area of Belfast. After her father died in 1911, she and her mother (who eventually remarried) were very poor. At one point it became almost necessary for Sarah to place Irene in an orphanage. However, this did not happen and at an early age Irene left school and went to work in a linen factory, as did many young people at that time.

Following a 6-week training course in Leicester, England, Irene left Belfast in 1930 and travelled to Canada alone, where she became a domestic worker in the home of the Horne family in Calgary, Alberta. It was there that she met Rasmus (Ross) Nicolaj Nielsen, who later became her husband after they both moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where they married and raised their family.

In 1970, Ross accepted employment at a shipyard in San Diego, California, where they lived until 1991, when they returned to Canada to live near family for their remaining years.