The Connie (George) Nelson Collection contains materials relating to the George and Zimmermann families of McIntosh County, North Dakota, including family trees, pedigrees, typescripts, and clippings from books and periodicals. Some smaller series within this collection concerns information relating to three other families: the Erbele, Maclachlan, and Nielson families. Also present within this collection is a grouping of photographs depicting friends and relatives of the George, Zimmermann, and Buechler families. The Connie Nelson Collection has been arranged into seven series, as follows.

The Legal Papers Series consists of photocopies of documents relating to land ownership, citizenship, and marriage of Jacob H. George. The original documents were created in 1892-1939. Present within this series are photocopies of the citizenship affidavit for George, dated 1892; marriage certificate for Jacob George and Mathilda Blaskowski, dated 12 December 1900; a land homestead claim filed by George in 1907; a title for land, dated 1910; and legal paperwork involving the estate of George’s brother, Heinrich, dated 1927.

The Correspondence Series contains letters sent to Connie Nelson that date from 1992-1998. This correspondence has information regarding the George and Zimmermann families.

Also contained within the Connie Nelson Collection is the Family Histories Series, which contains numerous resources concerning the Erbele, George, MacLachlan, Nielson, and Zimmermann families,, including pedigree charts, family trees, histories, and biographical information on family members. The Erbele Family History folder contains a historiography of the Erbele family that was prepared for Wilmer Erbele in 1973. This features a coat-of-arms and family chart for the Erbele family. Folder 5 contains family tree and pedigree information for descendants of the George family. Folder 6 contains biographical and historical information for the George family. The George Family Tree folder contains a photocopy of a handmade family tree, which reaches back to Peter Georg, born in 1788. The Maclachlan Family History Folder contains one page of information about the Maclachlan family, who originated in Scotland. The Nielson Family History Folder contains several pages of lineage of the Nielson family. The Zimmermann family materials have been separated into four folders, Folders 10-13. Folder 10 contains an extensive chart for the Zimmermann family, which reaches back to 1629. Within Folder 11 is a photocopy of a document titled the “Zimmermann Encyclopedia: From A to Z”, which contains biographical listings and photographs of many members of that family. Folder 12 contains biographical information regarding the Zimmermann family, including a print of the family crest, a CD ROM of information about that family, and a hand drawn family tree. Folder 13 contains a large, fold-out, colored family tree of the Zimmermann family, created by Gideon Zimmermann.

The Typescripts Series contains two typewritten documents. The “Clarence Master Sheets” consists of a folder of George family genealogical information and pedigrees. The “Friedenstal” folder contains translations from the booklet of the 150th anniversary of Friedenstal, which was observed in Marbach, Germany in 1984, and some translations from the book Friedenstal by Friedrich Ernst.

The Connie Nelson Collection also contains forty-nine (49) photographs, or the Photographic Images Series, which date from circa 1905-1990. Most of the images are portrait photographs of groups or individuals, mainly of people known by or related to the George family of McIntosh County, North Dakota. Many of the subjects have been identified, and some of their names include Nellie Griffin, Karl Buechler, Henry Buechler, Margaret Orsby, Patsy Doering, John A. George, Margarette Martin, Gottlieb Zimmermann, Lydia Zimmermann George, Fred and Violet Zimmermann, and Roy Krein. Some of the photographic studios represented include Kregel Photo Parlors, St. Paul, Minnesota; Artcraft Studio, Portland, Oregon; McCracken, Fargo, North Dakota; L.W. Naegle, Bismarck, North Dakota; and Heilman, Eureka, South Dakota. Five of the images are snapshots taken in Germany, circa 1990, of relatives of Kurt Zimmermann. Several photographic print formats are represented within this series, including real photo postcards, gelatin silver prints, albumen prints, 3 x 5 prints, one cabinet photo, and photo-quality copies. Forty-four of the images are black and white, five images are in color. Also arranged within this series is a folder of photocopies of photographs related to the George and Zimmermann families, the originals of which have been retained elsewhere. A folder of captions related to the photographs, which have been retained to ensure proper provenance, is also contained within this series.

The Book Series contains one book that was donated as part of the Connie Nelson Collection. Wartburg Fibel is a German-language primer that was written by August Engelbrecht, no date.