Borghild Marie Nilsen was born in Hegna i Mælum, Telemark, Norway on 2 December 1893. Her parents, Jacob Thomassen, born in Lunde in Telemark in 1871 or 1872 and Karen Isaksdatter, born in Solum in 1868, were farmers. The father went to America in 1906, and she never saw nor heard from him again ever since. Her mother died in 1913, when she was only 19 years old. In 1924 Borghild travelled to Vestfold and worked as a maid at Spetalen farm, in the then in Tjolling municipality. She married Nils Kristian Nilsen (1884–1965).