Josephine Coryell was born around 1840 in New York to Mary Coryell. Her father was a carpenter who owned $4,000 of real estate by 1850. The family lived in Catharine, New York, until the 1850s, when they moved to Iowa. She married John Aldrich on November 22, 1862, and they had at least two children: Nellie and Bessie. She died sometime after 1864.