Nina Divine was born around October 1847 in New York to Bradley Divine and Ann Mason. Her father was a farmer who owned $2,000 of real estate by 1850. She grew up and attended school in Fallsburg, New York, and her father “deserted” the family in the late 1850s. By 1860, she was living in the household of Richard and Sally Gardner in Fallsburg.
She married George W. Laidlaw, and they had three children: Frank, born around 1876; Niel, born around 1879; and Leo, born around 1883. They lived in Fallsburg, and her husband worked as a farmer. Her husband died on October 11, 1909, and by 1910, she was living in her son Leo’s household in Fallsburg. She died there on January 6, 1916.