Mary's tale keeps on spinning out, but I'm finally sure that this lady interred here is the lady I'd long sought.

I had thought that this lady might well be Mary F Romberger Albee, daughter of George and Anna Laura Romberger and former wife of Rev. Walter Albee. Today on July 23, 2012 I learned for certain it is she.

Her father George Romberger was the big brother of my great grandpa Daniel. This search for Mary took on a life of its own- on a whim I checked the 1917 Harrisburg City Directory to see who lived at George Romberger's house after he died in 1916. Up came a Mary and Walter Albee, which made me check to be sure George had had a daughter of Mary's name and age, and indeed he did.

Mary F. Romberger married traveling preacher, Walter E. Albee. The two appear in the 1917 city directory of Harrisburg at the address where Mary F. Romberger's parents and siblings lived. Walter is listed as a seller or dealer of fruit, but the Harrisburg Patriot has many entries about his work as a preacher at city missions. He seems to have come to the city from Ashley, Pennsylvania (near Wilkes Barre) in 1916, and created a bit of a sensation; the newspapers call him The Boy Preacher. He began preaching on the street, but later worked at city missions. Anyway, that same year, 1917, the couple would lose their one year old son, George, named for Mary's father who died the year before.

Three years later, Mary and Walter appear on the 1920 census together in Virginia and with a son Walter Albee Jr., a man I later knew and considered my cousin and friend.

By the 1930 census the family is in Philadelphia. They may have had their own reasons for going there, but Mary's mother and some siblings had moved there after Mary's father died. Mary and Rev. Walter's household is comprised of Walter (age 38), Mary (age 38), Walter (age 11), Laura (age 9), Paul (age 7), David (age 5) and Alma (actually Anna, age 3). One child who never showed up on a census and whom living family did not know of is one I found via a death certificate in 2016: stillborn Baby Albee, a boy, born and died in 1933. Perhaps because parents deal with loss of a child differently, or perhaps because Reverend Albee needed no encouragement, he would leave the family less than four years later. This tragedy and his traveling career may have provided impetus. By the 1940 census, Mary was alone with her kids at home at 546 Paxon St. in Philadelphia, which is the same address George Lomas would later use on his WWII draft card.

The address would not pop up too often. By 1942, Mary's son 23 year old Walter would show up here when he procured a license to wed 16 year old Dorothy McElrath. In 1955, when driving an oil truck, George Lomas had this address when he was involved in an accident on Industrial Highway in Lester, Pennsylvania.

I have found branches of the Albee family, and they agree that my Mary had five living children with the Reverend. As an itinerant preacher who traveled to do tent meetings, Rev. Albee was on the road a great deal. Historically, tent revival meetings gained popularity in the 1930's, stricken as those years were by the Depression. Over time Walter's absences got longer and longer, and finally he did not come home again to his wife and five children.

I am told he remarried in 1937, without obtaining a divorce, and that he was about 42 and his new bride was 16. The bride's youth aside, his age does not match up for this year, though his remarriage in 1937 is certain. I am told the good Reverend fudged his age so as not to alarm the family of his young bride.

In the meantime, over the years, my Mary was looking for him, and finally did so to obtain a divorce; reportedly even the FBI was involved, though my FOIA request said they had no such record. That divorce was finally obtained after Walter and Ruby had been married for six years and had one son, and another on the way. There are two sides to every story, but it can't be denied that Mary must have been rather saddened and stricken, left to provide for and raise five children on her own. By 1937, her children would have been ages 18, 16, 14, 12, and 10 - not toddlers, but not yet out of the house either.

But is this lady buried at West Laurel Hill my family's Mary? The cemetery was most helpful in providing information on the lady interred here, yet the info they gave raised more questions than answers. Their records show the lady's middle initial was indeed "F" like the lady I seek. However, their records state this lady was age 60, which would mean (if correct) that she was born 1900, and my Mary was born about 1891 meaning she'd have been almost 70 by 1960. Further, the lot owner is a George Lomas who signed the paperwork and was thereon identified as her son. I have found this George Lomas, born 1900 in Bridgeport, Connecticut - the only reason I am sure it is him, is because his draft card names Mary Albee as the "person who will always know your address". His WWI card (when he was still in CT) named him fully as "George Oscar Lomas" with the same date and place of birth. He died in December of 1973 with a last address in zip 19023, Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. He's a hard man to track, apparently not appearing in any census after he left his home state.

The Lomas mystery ended today when a relative of the family told me that even though Mary never married after Reverend Albee left her, she did have a loving companion who lived with her, and he was George Lomas, said to have been a writer.

The reason the cemetery records were confusing is that Mary had a brother George L., born August 10, 1888, and the 1930 census says he lived by then in Philadelphia, so perhaps he took charge of her arrangements and the paperwork misstated their relationship, and gave his middle name as his last name... and his middle name was Lawrence, so did they mis-hear him and write "Lomas"? Relationship, middle as last name, spelled wrong... three errors seemed a stretch, so the Lomas explanation makes much more sense.

But one more mystery was still unsolved... Mary is interred with a Fannie C. Jones, and I had no idea who this is either. According to cemetery records, Fannie died at age 63 in 1940, making her born about 1877, 14 years older than my Mary. My Mary had no kids or sisters named Fannie or even close. There is a woman of Fannie's name, a black woman born in Virginia who was living in Dauphin County for the 1920 census, and Dauphin County is where my Mary was from. For that 1920 census, Fannie was a servant to the Frank and Nellie Payne family, he a president of a shoe factory - no known link to the Rombergers... although there is rumor of a Romberger child getting adopted by a family who had a shoe business, though the suspected family name was Lesher. See how information can raise more questions than it answers?

Ultimately though, the answer was found. Fannie Jones was more completely Fannie Content Manchester who subsequently married and became Lomas, Bennett, and Jones. Yes - she was George Lomas' mother; hence, George laid his common law wife to rest next to his mom. And this explains why the grave lot paperwork named him as "son".

I do not know the whole story on George's mom Fannie nor why she was in Pennsylvania, but the 1940 census shows her as an inmate at Philadelphia General Hospital, and claims she was there in 1935 too. When she died, the Paxon Street address was used as her place of "usual residence". on her death certificate Interestingly, though it was also the address of her son George and his (essentially) wife Mary, the informant on her certificate was James W Reid of that same address - a paramour, boarder? One wonders why he stepped up when George's mom died, and not George himself, or even one of Mary's kids. The only James W Reid in Philadelphia for the 1940 census was a black married policeman at 1741 Fontain. Removing the middle initial and looking for any James Reid on that 1940 census, he does indeed show up at 546 Paxon as a renter, occupation printer, age 24, along with his wife Laura, age 19, both of them reporting they lived there in 1935. It would appear he was a long term renter there, along with Mary's family who were reported as her list of kids, Walter, Paul, David, and Anna. If George or his mom was here at this time, they were not reported on the census by Mary's son Paul who answered the census taker.

But think... Laura Reid, this wife of the printer... she is 19. Mary's daughter Laura was 9 on the 1930 census, so odds seem very good that Laura Reid is Mary's now-married daughter. James Reid as the informant on Fannie's death certificate means he wasn't just a friendly neighbor, but essentially a family member. Since 546 North Paxon was about 940 square feet in living area, it may have been a bit tight for all who lived there. It's currently described as a 3 bedroom, 1 bath property.

This Mary Albee buried in West Laurel Hill is in the same cemetery and the same section, Providence, that my Mary Romberger's mother and some siblings were interred. It gives peace to know now where another of my Rombergers rests, and I hope to pay respects when I am next in the area.

How did so much of this odd tale of a philandering husband come to light? Her husband rests here, buried in the South. I found him interred with someone named Ruby. Initially, due to a large age difference, I was unsure if Ruby were the Reverend's daughter or wife, but have since found one son who told me that Ruby was the Rev.'s wife, and his own mother. This son had heard Mary's first name but did not know what had become of her, and had never heard of their having had children... so the Reverend seems to have started his life anew, not referencing his past in detail. After his passing, when his youngest child with Mary was close to age 90, both sides of his children finally had contact.

Mary died with cervical cancer; similarly, her sister Naomi Romberger Hamsher died of uterine cancer.