Marilyn Dear Nelson was born in California and moved with her military family to army posts and embassies around the US, South America, and Europe. Her international marketing career took her to Europe, South Africa, Australia, and Hong Kong, where she met her husband, Chris. Marilyn grew up with stories, artifacts, and stereotype images from her great-grandfather's life in the Wild West. When she and Chris retired to London they started to research his extraordinary life and to translate Marilyn's hazy recollections into reality.

Chris Nelson was born near London. After university he initially worked in the UK, but most of his career was spent overseas, first in Hong Kong and then in the Middle East, where he was the CEO of multinational corporations. He has always been fascinated by American history and the opening up of the West, and Marilyn's connections provided the perfect project for them to pursue their interests.