When Marie Togstad was born on 27 April 1882, in Ottestad, Hedmark, Norway, her father, Severin Larsen Togstad, was 31 and her mother, Mathea Monsdatter, was 24. She married Carl N. Christianson about 1902. They were the parents of at least 9 sons and 2 daughters. She lived in Benson, North Dakota, United States in 1935 and Brinsmade, Benson, North Dakota, United States in 1940. She died in 1961, at the age of 79.