Elling Ellingson emigrated from Krødsherad, Norway in 1848; his second wife Else Livdahl emigrated from Norway in 1860 when she was 16. Both came to the Spring Grove, Minnesota area.  Else worked as a hired girl for several years, including two years in the Ellingson household after Elling's first wife died, leaving five children.  Elling and Else married in 1865, and added five more children to the Ellingson clan.  Gena was the youngest of these; she married Hemming Hansen Frost in 1904 (after his first wife died). Their oldest son was Reuben Bernhard Frost.