Wilhelm was the child of Christoph Ludwig Friedrich "Ludwig" Heiden and his first wife who was German.

Ludwig, who had moved from Germany to Sweden was a younger brother of August Heiden's mother, Maria Heiden. Therefore, he was an uncle to August and his half-sister, Fredericka (Heiden) Schmidt.

On January 27, 1883, Ludwig sent a letter to his nephew, August Heiden in America containing this information. "Wilhelm is a tailor and lives in Gorlitz, Silesia." Wilhelm would have been August's first cousin.