Julia Johanna Tvenstrup (m. Isley)
(1920 - 2001)
Profile
Julia Johanne Tvenstrup enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1942. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War.
Julia Johanne Tvenstrup was born on 26 May 1920 in Aarhus, to Julius Acton Andreas Peter Tvenstrup and Dorthe Eleonora Katrine (Dora) Tvenstrup (née Lund).[1] Tvenstrup’s father, a butcher by trade, emigrated to the United States in the early 1910 and was later joined by his brother. The two brothers established a meat shop in Pillsbury, North Dakota, with his brother. In the early 1920s, they moved to Luverne and Valley City, North Dakota.[2] Her mother had emigrated to the United States as well. Her parents were married in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in 1913.[3] Their wedding had been planned in Denmark in 1910 before they emigrated, but the ceremony was not carried out.[4]
Tvenstrup’s father died in 1924, and her mother raised her and her siblings in Champaign, Illinois.[5] Her mother was naturalised as citizen of the United States in 1932.[6]
Tvenstrup enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in Peoria, Illinois, on 18 December 1942 (A-601114). Her civil occupation prior to enlistment was categorized as clerk, general office, and it is presumed that she served in an administrative role.[7] She was discharged on 7 August 1943.[8]
Tvenstrup married Wendell H. Isley after the war.[9] The couple settled in Wisconsin, where she died on 24 March 1984.[10]
Her brother Norman served in the Army Air Corps.[11]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Aarhus, Sankt Johannes Sogn, Fødselsanstalten.
[2] Pillsbury Book Committee (1987). Profiles of the past : written in observance of Pillsbury’s 75th diamond jubilee.
[3] Ancestry: Alberta, Canada, Marriages Index,1898-1942.
[4] DNA: Parish register, Lyndby sogn (Randers Amt).
[5] Ancestry: 1930 United States Federal Census and 1940 United States Federal Census.
[6] Ancestry: Illinois, Federal Naturalization Records, 1840-1991.
[7] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[8] Ancestry: U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010.
[9] Ancestry: 1950 United States Federal Census.
[10] Ancestry: 1950 United States Federal Census.
[11] Obituary for Norman E. Twenstrup, The Park City Daily News, 19 Sep 2000, p. 5.