LAU / OECKLER FAMILY HISTORY
Last update 10/26/2023
Sallenthin is located in the northernmost section of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is 250 miles north of Hafenpreppach,
and 100 miles west of Berlin. Hafenpreppach is located in the northernmost section of the state of Bavaria.
Anna "Annie" Margaretha Oeckler was born May 22, 1867 in Hafenpreppach. Her parents were Johann Georg Oeckler (1822-1891) and Anna Margaretha Syrer (1837- ). Johann was born on February 7, 1822. He was 39 years old when he and Anna were married in Hafenpreppach on November 10, 1861. Anna, who was born on July 16, 1837, was 24 years old when they married. Her parents were Nikolaus Syrer and Anna Barbara Fortsch.
Johann's parents were Georg Michael Oeckler (1786-1825) and Eva Kunigunda Hofmann (1792-1850). Georg was born in Germany on October 4, 1786. Eva was born in Germany on April 30, 1792. They were married on February 18, 1816. Georg was only 38 years old when he died in Germany on June 25, 1825, three years after Johann's birth. 25 years later, when she was 58, Eva died in Germany on December 10, 1850.
Georg's parents were Johann Nickolaus Oeckler and Anna Margaretha Schlafflein. They were married in Germany on June 19, 1774. There is no record of Johann or Anna's birth, but he died in Germany on January 28, 1818 and she died in Germany on March 24, 1805.
Eva's parents were Johann Georg Hofmann and Maria Kunigunda Gunther.
Johann Georg Oeckler died in Germany on July 28, 1891, age 69.
Annie was 14 years old when she immigrated to America in 1881. She lived in Massachusetts for a while. On March 23, 1886, 18-year-old Annie met and married a German sailor named Paul Zeidler in Lowell, Massachusetts. Shortly after the ceremony, Paul returned to his ship and sailed away. Annie never saw him again. Somehow, she made her way to Philadelphia where she met Albert.
Albert immigrated to America in 1886 when he was about 24 years old. After he and Annie met in Philadelphia, they were married across the Delaware River in Camden, New Jersey on September 12, 1887. Albert was 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 185 pounds. He had a light complexion, light-colored hair and mustache, and blue eyes. On his left arm he wore a tattoo of a lady. Annie stood a few inches taller, at 5 feet 10 inches. She weighed 140 pounds, had a dark complexion with light grey eyes. She and Albert were members of Saint Paul's Lutheran Church. Together, they would have 8 children, but only 4 would survive into adulthood.
When the first child, Augusta (Gussie) Bertha Lau, was born in Philadelphia on March 5, 1888, the family was living at 242 George Street. She married Henry Johnson in 1904. She was 16 years old at the time.
Henry was born in Brooklyn on September 24, 1884, the son of Swedish immigrant Thomas Johnson and Norwegian-born Julia Bierman. Henry's father Thomas worked initially as a barber, but eventually held employment as a carpenter at the Brooklyn Navy Yard where Henry also worked as a sail maker. Henry was tall in stature with a medium build, blue eyes and light brown hair.
By 1918, they were living at 302 Union Street in Brooklyn with their daughter Viola Anne Johnson, who was born on November 16, 1916. By 1930, Henry, Gussie and Viola had moved to 1859 East 37th Street in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Gussie had a fair complexion, stood five feet 6 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds. Shortly afterward, they moved to 1905 50th Street. In March of 1931, Henry suffered from Hemiplegia, leading to paralysis on one side of his body. He suffered through this for over a year before developing Bronchopneumonia and he died just before Christmas on December 19, 1932. He was only 48 years old. Viola was 16 years old at the time. Henry was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn. When Gussie's father Albert died several years later on February 4, 1938, he was buried with Henry.
On September 24, 1937, Viola married an accountant named Louis Arthur Dalwin, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Frank Dalefsky and Sophia Poritzky. The marriage was officiated by Rabbi Samuel Levinson. Like many with Polish and Russian ancestry, Louis changed his surname from Dalefsky to Dalwin. Louis was born in Brooklyn on November 1, 1911. He attended New York University School of Commerce where his pursuits were in football and accounting. He graduated from there in 1935 with a degree in accounting. Louis was 5' 9" tall, weighed about 180 pounds, with brown eyes and hair, a dark complexion and a receding hairline.
Following the marriage, the couple moved to an apartment at 820 East 10th Street in Brooklyn. They had two children, a daughter Laraine Carol Dalwin in 1936, and a son Kenneth Dalwin in 1940. Louis was a veteran of World War II, serving as an officer in the U. S. Air Force. In May of 1944, while still actively serving, he was hospitalized with acute nasopharyngitis, an infectious inflammatory disease of the nasal passages that makes it very difficult to breathe. He recovered and was honorably discharged.
The 1940 Federal Census shows the widowed Gussie living with her brother and sister-in-law, Albert and Marie (Timms) Lau, at the Timms family home at 460 13th Street in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. At some point after this, Gussie remarried, to a man named Miller.
By 1950, Viola and Louis and their children had moved to the town of Hempstead on Long Island. Louis was now a "tropical fish manager" for an aquarium supplies store. By 1967, when their daughter Laraine got married, Louis and Viola were separated, he living in Bayside and she in Roslyn, New York.
Gussie died April 27, 1972 at the age of 84. She was buried with her father and Henry at Evergreen Cemetery. On April 29, 1984, Louis suffered his second heart attack, this one fatal, and he died in Bayside at the age of 72. He was buried at Montefiore Cemetery at Springfield Gardens in Queens, New York.
Viola married for a second time to Joseph Frank Alampi. Joseph was born in Brooklyn on August 19, 1915, the son of Paul Alampi and Concetta Galletta. Joseph was 5' 7" tall, weighed about 155 pounds, with blue eyes, brown hair and a ruddy complexion. He and Viola lived in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania where Joseph worked in public transportation for the state of Pennsylvania and was a member of the Knights of Columbus. In 1989 they moved to Homosassa, Florida where they became members of the Saint Thomas Catholic Church and the Italian American Club of Citrus County.
Viola was a life-long cigarette smoker so it was no surprise when she died from lung cancer on February 15, 1994. She was buried at Fero Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Beverly Hills, Florida. When Joseph died in Homosassa on January 11, 2000 at the age of 84, his body was transported to New York for burial at Saint John Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens.
After Gussie, came Charles Albert Lau, born in Philadelphia on September 15, 1890. He lived for only one year, dying from cerebral meningitis on September 19, 1891. They buried him at Greenmount Cemetery in Philadelphia. Around the time of Charles' death, another child was born. His name was probably William, but the only evidence we have of him refers to his name only as Billie Lau. He was born in Philadelphia on July 31, 1891. He did not survive to be recorded on the 1900 Federal Census, but the record of his death has not been found.
Bill was born in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia on July 31, 1892. He served in the United States Navy from July 30, 1908 to July 29, 1912. He was five feet nine inches tall and weighed 145 pounds. He had a very light complexion with light hair and eyes. He wore his hair turned back. On his left arm he wore a tattoo of a cowgirl. On November 29, 1913, Bill passed the police department examination and entered the New York Police Force on February 20, 1914. He was a New York City policeman and detective for 30 years. To read some newspaper reports depicting his police exploits, click here.
On June 14, 1916, Bill married Lillian Veronica Donahue. The marriage took place at Bill's mother Annie's house at 307 Court Street in Brooklyn. Lillian was born in Brooklyn on May 20, 1896, the daughter of John J. Donahue and Anna Mohan. Lillian was five feet nine inches tall and weighed 130 pounds. She had a fair complexion and a prominent nose. Initially, the couple lived at 107 Boerum Place in Brooklyn. They moved several more times before finally settling at 105 50th Street in 1924. This was right down near the docks on New York Bay. We don't know what this home looked like. By 1940, the entire 100-block portion of 50th Street had been torn down and replaced with warehousing.
Bill and Lillian had two sons and a daughter: William John Lau (1917), Gerard John Lau (1919), and Muriel Lillian Lau (1922). Until 1924, the family lived at 106 East 4th Street in Brooklyn. Living with them was Bill's mother Annie and his brother Albert and sister Anna. Although both Annie and her daughter Anna listed themselves on the 1920 Federal Census as being married, neither of their husbands was living with them at Bill and Lillian's home. Anna's son, Albert J. Williams, age 8, was living there.
Bill and Lillian separated in June of 1929. At the time, William was 11, Gerard 9 and Muriel 6. By 1930, Bill was living at 1905 50th Street in Brooklyn. Living with Bill was his mother and father, Albert and Annie, apparently reconciled. Also living there were Bill's two sons, William and Gerard, and Bill's widowed sister Anna Williams and her son Albert J. Williams (18). At the same time, Lillian and her daughter Muriel were living with Lillian's sister and brother-in-law, Margaret and Harold Chilton, at 615 68th Street in Brooklyn. Bill and Lillian finally divorced in 1933.
Bill and Lillian's children, William, Gerard and Muriel, were single and living together in 1940 at 1975 51st Street, in Brooklyn. A few blocks away, at 1949 53rd Street, lived the Kavanagh family: John P. Kavanagh and his wife Margaret F. (McCarthy), and their children, including a son, William Peter Kavanagh, and a daughter, Eleanor Mary Kavanagh. The Lau and Kavanagh men were primarily longshoremen and probably worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Gerard John Lau was born in Brooklyn on September 11, 1919. He married Eleanor Kavanagh in New York on October 5, 1940. Eleanor was born in Brooklyn on February 4, 1917. Gerard was six feet tall, weighing 155 pounds, with blonde hair, blue eyes and a light complexion. In 1943, Gerard enlisted in the U.S. Navy. In January of 1946, he was discharged but reentered service with the Navy in May of 1947 and served until his discharge in 1954. He then appears to have enlisted in the Navy Reserve and held the rank of Shipfitter Second Class.
Gerard and Eleanor had two children, a daughter named Marguerite Lillian Lau in 1943 and a son, Gerard John Lau, Jr. born on Christmas Eve in 1947. They lived in Woodhaven, in Queens, New York.
On August 23, 1959, Gerard and Eleanor and their two children were visiting Bill and Toots at their home in Toms River, New Jersey. The family was sitting on the front porch of the house waiting to go to 12 o'clock mass at Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic church when a fire broke out at the county jail, located across the street from Bill and Toot's house. When Gerard heard the screams from the trapped prisoners, he bolted across the street and entered the burning building. After gaining access to the prisoners on the second floor, an explosion hurled Gerard back down the stairs. He was severely burned but eventually managed to crawl out of the burning building on his hands and knees before being rescued by the firemen. He was brought to Paul Kimball Hospital in Lakewood, New Jersey in critical condition.
Gerard eventually obtained a limited recovery from his injuries. At the time of the tragic fire, he was 40 years old, and Eleanor was 42, Marguerite 16, and Jerry 11. In February of 1961, Gerard received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism for his role in the fire. The month before, he filed a $600,000 law suit against Ocean County officials for injuries he received in the fire. To read the newspaper accounts about this, click here.
Gerard and Eleanor's daughter Marguerite Lillian Lau married Joseph Gargiullo in 1963. At some point the marriage ended. When Marguerite was 51 years old, she married 66-year-old Stanley Vincent Bojna in Florida on December 30, 1994. Stanley was born January 22, 1928 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He had four daughters from a previous marriage. He was an Army veteran of World War II. He was an electronics technician for Perkin-Elmer Corporation in Norwalk, Connecticut. A few years after his marriage to Marguerite, Stanley died at their home in New Port Richey, Florida on May 21, 1997. He was 69 years old. He was buried at Meadowlawn Memorial Gardens in New Port Richey.
Gerard John Lau, Jr., otherwise known as Jerry, served with the Air Force's 507th Maintenance Squadron as a Chief Master Sergeant. His nickname in the service was "Hooky". He was nearly 36 years old when he married Ann Marie Wright on September 10, 1983. They lived in Oklahoma City in Oklahoma and had two daughters. After retiring from the service, Jerry worked as a civilian at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City. He was a boating enthusiast and owned several Chevy Corvettes. Jerry died on May 17, 2010 at his home in Oklahoma City at the age of 62.
Gerard Sr. was 71 when he died in Florida on January 8, 1991. He was buried at Meadowland Memorial Gardens in New Port Richey, Florida. One month later, his mother Lillian, who was 94 years old and living with Gerard and Eleanor, died on February 6, 1991. She was also buried at Meadowland Memorial Gardens but in a different section. Lillian's surname was now Hayes. She may have married Elmer Ellsworth Hayes who is also buried at the cemetery. On April 13, 1999 at the age of 82, Eleanor died. She was buried next to Gerard at Meadowland Memorial Gardens.
Muriel Lau was born in Brooklyn on September 24, 1922. Several months after her brother Gerard married Eleanor Kavanagh in 1940, Muriel married Eleanor's brother William Kavanagh in New York on April 5, 1941. William was born in Brooklyn a year before Eleanor, on February 20, 1916. William was a longshoreman. He stood 6 feet tall and weighed 180 pounds. He had brown hair and eyes with a light complexion. He also had a noticeable scar on his left wrist. He and Muriel had a son, William Kavanagh, Jr. William Sr. died at the age of 79 on April 29, 1995. On June 1, 2011, Muriel died. She was 88 years old. They are buried together at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island, in the same plot with William's parents, John Kavanaugh (1874-1964) and Margaret Kavanaugh (1879-1959).
Gerard and Muriel's brother William James Lau was born in Brooklyn on July 10, 1917. He enlisted in the Army in 1941. He was 5' 8" tall and weighed 155 pounds, with blonde hair, blue eyes and a light complexion. Like any good soldier, he also had body tattoos.
On September 3, 1943, while still serving in the Army, William married Catherine Mildred Bell. Catherine was born in Barnwell, South Carolina, the daughter of Coy Manley Bell (1901-1973) and Effie Beatrice Murphy (1907-1935). After being honorably discharged from the Army when World War II ended, William reentered the service ten years later and served until his discharge in 1967. He was a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, attaining the rank of Master Sergeant.
William and Catherine had three children, two sons, James Lau and John Coy Lau, and a daughter Patricia Lau. William died on January 29, 1986 at the age of 68. He was buried in the cemetery in Williston, South Carolina, located about 12 miles north of Catherine's hometown of Barnwell. When Catherine died on February 12, 1999 at the age of 77, she was buried next to William at Williston Cemetery.
In 1998, Cousin Theresa Lau sent me a copy of a remarkable document: Bill Lau's personal journal, in which he recorded personal details about his family members. I have used many of those details to provide the physical descriptions of several of the Lau family members. Theresa is the wife of Bill's son by his second marriage (see below), William Francis Lau. To see the copy of the journal that Theresa sent me, click here.
As mentioned earlier, Bill and Lillian divorced in 1933. On October 6, 1937, Bill married Carmela "Toots" Lanzaro in Elkton, Maryland. She was 26 years old, he was 45. To read a sensational but very sad story about an episode in Bill's police career just a few weeks before the marriage, click here.
In 1939, Bill and Toots moved from 1905 50th Street in Brooklyn to Toms River, New Jersey, and in August 1943, they purchased the house at 105 Hooper Avenue, where they raised three sons, Robert "Bob" Eugene Lau, born July 1, 1938, William "Bill" Francis Lau, born April 2, 1940, and Lawrence "Larry" Frederick Lau, born August 2, 1943.
Bob graduated Toms River High School and served in the United States Marine Corps for five years. He married Guadelupe "Lou" Medina on January 23, 1959. They lived in Kansas City, Missouri. Bob worked for the Schlitz Brewing Company as a brewer for 13 years then retired from his civil service job just across the border at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas after 20 years.
Bob and Lou had two daughters and two sons. One of the sons, William "Billy" Francis Lau, born June 25, 1966, died tragically in an auto accident on June 26, 1982, a day after his 16th birthday. He was buried at White Chapel Memorial Gardens in Gladstone, Missouri.
On March 12, 2007 at the age of 68, Bob died from lung cancer. Like his son Billy, he was buried at White Chapel.
After graduating Toms River High School and Utah State University, Bill was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force in 1965. Before entering flight school, he married Florence Marguerite Brown in Seaside Heights, New Jersey on November 20, 1965. Florence, also a graduate of Toms River High School, was a secretary at Hoffmann-LaRoche, a pharmaceutical company in Nutley, New Jersey.
Florence and Bill had two daughters and a son. One of the daughters was Debra Louise Lau, born September 16, 1966 in Lubbock, Texas. In 1988, she graduated Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She was a member of the National Honor Society and a volunteer Spanish interpreter for the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills, New Jersey. Debra was teaching at Pemberton High School in Pemberton Township, New Jersey when she died tragically on May 31, 1992, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. She was only 25 years old.
Bill piloted Air Force planes in Okinawa and Korea, and reached the rank of Captain. After retiring from the Air Force in 1970, Bill worked as a production foreman for Revlon and White Westinghouse in Edison, New Jersey and Knickerbocker Toys in Middlesex. At some point, he and Florence divorced. Bill married Theresa M. Covert and they lived in Leonardo, New Jersey. Bill was a postal carrier for the Leonardo Post Office. He and Theresa had a son and daughter.
Bill died suddenly from a massive heart attack on July 13, 1985 when he was only 45 years old. He was buried at Fair View Cemetery in Middletown, New Jersey.
Larry married Mickey Jouflas. They had two sons and a daughter. Following a divorce, Larry married Donna Applegate. Donna had a daughter from a previous marriage.
Toots passed away May 6, 1961 at her home in Toms River, when she was only 50 years old. She was buried in the Lanzaro family plot at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Keyport, New Jersey. Bill died a year later on June 9, 1962. He was 71. He is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Toms River.
After Bill, the fifth child born to Albert and Annie was Anna Lau, in Philadelphia in October of 1894. She died nine months later on July 31, 1895. She was buried with her brother Charles at Greenmount Cemetery. The family was now living at 1236 Mascher Street.
When the next child arrived, another daughter, they decided to name her after the recently deceased Anna. This was Anna Margarethe Eva Lau, born December 22, 1896 at 81 Grand Street in Philadelphia. A few years later, the family moved across the Delaware River to Hoboken, New Jersey. Sometime in 1911, Anna married John Wilhelms. While we don't know the exact date of the marriage, we do know that Anna was 15 years old when she gave birth to a son in Hoboken named Albert George Wilhelms on September 1, 1911.
John was born in Hoboken on March 4, 1891, the son of George Wilhelms and Catherine Vonderleigh. The Wilhelms family lived at 158 Ninth Street in Hoboken. John was of medium height and build, with blue eyes and blonde hair. Anna was five feet 3 inches tall and weighed 120 pounds. She had a fair complexion.
John worked as an "audit clerk" for a steamship company, and later as a truck driver and a "pen grinder." In 1915, he, Anna and Albert were living at 307 Court Street in Brooklyn with Anna's parents Albert and Annie Lau. By 1917, they appear to be living back in Hoboken, at 533 Garden Street. Then, in January of 1920, Anna and her son Albert are back living with her parents in Brooklyn, this time at 106 East Fourth Street. John is no where to be found, but he turns up in 1928 when he dies from pneumonia at Saint Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn on May 9, 1928. He may have been living at 666 18th Street in Brooklyn. He was buried at Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn.
In 1930, Anna and her son Albert are living with her parents and brother Bill, who was separated from his first wife Lillian, at 1905 50th Street in Brooklyn. The 1930 Federal Census shows that Bill owns the property that is valued at $7,000. His two sons, William and Gerard are there, also. Daughter Muriel was with her mother Lillian who was living with her sister Margaret and her husband Harold Chilton at 615 68th Street in Brooklyn.
Anna's son Albert was 5' 5" tall and weighed about 135 pounds. He had blonde hair, blue eyes and a light complexion. He worked for the New York Transit System. Albert was about 28 years old when he married Margaret C. Bryant. That marriage didn't last very long and by 1940 he was back living with his mother and Albert and Marie at the Timms home, 460 13th Street. A year later, he tried marriage again, with Anna M. Massomille, which didn't last long, either. Finally, in 1949, he married Olga R. Panzironi. They lived at 1200 Woodycrest Avenue, Apartment 5A in the Bronx. Albert was still working for the transportation department and Olga was an accounting clerk for the telephone company. Nothing more is known about Albert except his death in Yonkers, New York at the age of 66 in November of 1977.
Anna was 56 years old when she died in Brooklyn four days before her 57th birthday on December 18, 1952. She was buried with her husband John at Evergreens Cemetery.
Sometime between 1897 and 1898, the family moved to 88 Jefferson Street in Hoboken, New Jersey. It was here that child number seven was born. This was (7) Grechen Lau, born in Hoboken on April 6, 1898. She, too, did not survive to be recorded on the 1900 Federal Census, but no record of her death has been found.
The eighth and final child, Albert Heinrich Lau was born in Hoboken on August 4, 1899. By 1900, the family was still living at 88 Jefferson Street in Hoboken. Somehow, they made their way to Brooklyn where Albert and Annie were running a hotel, of sorts. It was actually a saloon, with perhaps rooms that were rented to justify being called a hotel. The hotel/saloon, and their home, was located at 166 Columbia Street in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, not far from where the Lanzaros and Lamuras were living at the time.
By 1913, Albert and Annie's marriage soured and Annie filed for a separation. After successfully gaining a legal separation, Annie moved to 129 Baltic Street, several blocks from the home on Columbia Street. At the time, Bill was 20 years old, and his brother Albert was 13. The long involved story about the separation was recorded for history in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. To read about it, click here.
When son Albert Heinrich Lau was 17 years old, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy on May 21, 1917. On July 31, 1917, a woman named Mary "Mae" McPartland gave birth to a baby girl named Marie Agnes Lau. Although there is no record of a marriage, it appears that Albert was Marie's father. Meanwhile, Albert served during World War I aboard the USS Alaskan as a Hospital Apprentice and attained the rank of Pharmacist First Mate, Second Class. A few days before Marie's first birthday, while Albert was still away in the Navy, Mae brought the baby to the home of Albert's parents on July 25, 1918 and abandoned her there. Albert's mother Annie refused to accept responsibility for the infant and turned it over to a city nurse at the Kings County Hospital. Albert's sister Anna brought charges against Mae who was arrested and charged with abandonment. Although she pleaded "not guilty", nothing more was recorded about the incident.
Albert was discharged on July 22, 1919. He found work as a timekeeper for a company in Brooklyn. Then, using his Navy training, he appears to have become a nurse. He and Mae also appear to have reconciled and Mae gave birth to a son, John Albert Lau, born in Brooklyn on December 3, 1920.
On April 5, 1921 Albert officially married Mae. She was born in Brooklyn on September of 1895, the daughter of Terence McPartland and Mary McKenna. She was four years older than Albert. The marriage did not last.
On August 25, 1927, Albert married Marie B. Timms. Marie was born in Brooklyn on November 15, 1902, the daughter of William Timms (1862-1929) and Catherine Wheeler (1870-1934). The Timms family lived at 542 Union Street in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn in 1910. William Timms worked as a "ship fitter helper" and a driver for a "gas wagon". Besides Marie, they also had three sons and another daughter. They were living at 460 13th Street in the nearby Gowanus neighborhood when Marie married Albert in 1927.
Prior to her marriage to Albert, Marie worked as a stenographer for a law firm. She continued to work after marrying Albert. She was very proud of her work as she worked for one of the sons of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman (Philemon Tecumseh Sherman.) Besides being a lawyer, Philemon was an accomplished author and public speaker. He gave an address regarding "General Sherman in the Last Year of the Civil War." This address was published in 1908 and Marie was provided with a copy.
Albert was five feet 8 inches in height and weighed 140 pounds. He had a light complexion. On his right arm was a tattoo of a skull, snake and dagger. In the 1930's, he and Marie and the children, Marie and John, lived at 290 East 56th Street in Brooklyn where Albert worked as an investigator for the police detective bureau. Albert and Marie were also members of a social club, the O'Brien Association of Bay Ridge, Albert serving as corresponding secretary while Marie was the recording secretary. By 1940, they were living at the old Timms family home at 460 13th Street
Marie Agnes Lau graduated Bay Ridge High School in January of 1936. She was working as an operator for the stock exchange on Wall Street when she married Robert "Bob" Francis Verhoogen on May 9, 1939. Bob was the son of Flemish Belgians Franciscus Richardus Verhoogen (1885-1970) and Irma Theresia De Ryck (1889-1964). Bob was born in Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on June 20, 1916. He and Marie lived at 336 Bay Ridge Parkway in Brooklyn. Bob was a lithographer for Local 1, Amalgamated Lithographers Union in New York City. He was 5' 11" tall, weighing about 180 pounds, with blonde hair, blue eyes and a light complexion. He and Marie had two daughters, Joan and Eileen.
Joan Louise Verhoogen was born in Brooklyn on January 23, 1941. She married Donald Campbell MacLean in 1965.
Eileen Frances Verhoogen was born in Brooklyn on December 4, 1943. After graduating from Saint John Villa Academy High School on Long Island, New York, she went on to earn a degree as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), working for North Princeton Development Center in Skilman, New Jersey and later at the Greenbrook Regional Center in Green Brook, New Jersey. On February 20, 1966, Eileen married John Marvin Bolt. John was born in Decatur, Illinois on January 12, 1944. He was one of at least nine children born to Jesse Leonard Bolt (1903-1959) and Elizabeth Rall (1906-1976).
Eileen and John had a son before they separated in 1971. Eileen died at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey on January 8, 2013. She was 69 years old. John died November 8, 2020. He was 76.
Marie and Bob moved to Montgomery, New Jersey in 1971. Montgomery is in Suffolk County and considered part of the New York Metropolitan Area, allowing Bob to continue working in Manhattan until retiring in 1978, after 38 years. He and Marie were members of the Montgomery Township Senior Citizens and the St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church in nearby Skillman, New Jersey. Bob Died a week after his 80th birthday on June 26, 1996 in Princeton, New Jersey, possibly from cancer. Marie followed him six months later on December 5, 1996, possibly from heart disease. She was 79. While we cannot find a record of Bob's burial, Marie was buried with her mother Mae McPartland Johnson at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Albert's son John Albert Lau, better known as Jack, was living in Manhattan and working as a "tabulating machine operator" when he married Jane Marie Yates, one day after his 21st birthday, on December 4, 1941. Since they applied for the license in November when Jack was still 20 years old, he had to get the written approval of his parents to get married, as required by New York State law at the time. In fact, his parents, Albert and Marie, were witnesses at the marriage.
Jane was born in Brooklyn on June 21, 1920, the daughter of William "Willie" Stephen Yates (1896-1975) and Josephine Morse (1898-1980). She was a graduate of Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn.
In May of 1944, during the height of World War II, Jack enlisted like his father in the U. S. Navy and was honorably discharged two years later in April 1946. He and Jane had two daughters, Mary Jane Lau and Barbara Lau, and a son, John A. Lau, Jr., better known as Skip.
Skip was born October 31, 1949. He served with the Air Force during the Vietnam War era, enlisting in April of 1969. After being stationed in Texas, California and Hawaii he was deployed overseas to the Philippines. He was discharged in April of 1973. Jack was 70 years old when he died on October 17, 1991. On March 15, 2000, Skip was only 50 when he died.
Jane worked as a waitress at the University Club of Hofstra University in Uniondale, on Long Island, New York. Eventually, she went to live with her daughter Mary Jane and her husband Walter Smith in DuBois, Pennsylvania. Jane died in DuBois on December 29, 2007. She was 87 years old.
After Albert H. Lau and his first wife Mae McPartland divorced, she married John A. Johnsen. They lived at 303 47th Street, a place in Brooklyn that no longer existed in 1940. This marriage didn't last either because Mae died on June 27, 1933 from "aplastic anemia", a disease in which the body fails to produce blood cells in sufficient numbers. She was 37 years old. She was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn in the Olive Square section.
Albert died May 27, 1982 at the age of 75. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in a different section where Mae was buried. Albert's second wife Marie Timms died on March 15, 1988 at the age of 85. She was buried with Albert at Holy Cross Cemetery.
After Albert and Annie legally separated in 1914, they lived with different family members until they appear to reunite and were living with their son Bill in 1930 at 1905 50th Street in Brooklyn. Bill was separated from Lillian (they divorced in 1933) and would marry Carmela "Toots" Lanzaro in 1937.
By 1935, Albert and Annie were living with their son Albert H. Lau and his wife Marie (Timms) and their family at 460 13th Street in Brooklyn. along with widowed daughters Gussie and Anna, when Albert suffered what appeared to be a mild heart attack the day after Christmas in 1936. It turned out to be Chronic Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. He survived for more than a year before dying at home on February 4, 1938. Although sources differ on the year of his birth, we have settled on 1860. Therefore, he was 77 years old when he died. He was buried with daughter Gussie's husband Henry Johnson in an unmarked grave at Evergreens Cemetery. When Gussie was 84 years old, she died on April 27, 1972. She was buried with her father and husband in the same plot in Evergreens Cemetery.
We have not been able to find documentation of Annie's death.
To see many of the documents used to build this narrative, click here. Scroll all the way down to near the bottom of the page to the section headed with Carmela P. Lanzaro Lau (1910-1961). Many of the pages also have photos of the various individuals.
