Her father was the duke Polycarpus Cronhielm (1774-1810) and her mother Anna Margareta Maria Edenhielm and she had five siblings.

The year she was born, both parents died and Pauline was raised by relatives in Gothenburg and in Jönköping.

[1] From 1825 Pauline resided in Jönköping and married a vicar named Carl Magnus Westdahl in 1835.

[2] After his death in 1865, Westdahl lived in Stockholm as a vicar's widow with a yearly pension of 200 (SEK).

[3] To make a living, she had to rent out rooms, and translated articles for, and wrote, for local newspapers.