Administrators: Do not delete. This is not a duplicate. A mother and daughter of the same name who died the same year are buried in the same plot. Thank you.

For the longest time, the mother and daughter of the same name lay at West Laurel Hill, and it was impossible to know which was which; they share the same unmarked plot, one at rest atop the other, they died the same year, and they had the same name. So whom to you connect as spouse to George Romberger, who was father to one and husband to the other?

The answer was finally found today, August 6, 2014, which is a bit odd, as the lady will have been laid to rest exactly 80 years tomorrow. The solution was in the Burlington County online library system with a newspaper index. It said:

Name: Romberger, Laura
Death Date: Aug 4, 1934
Place of Death: Philadelphia
Place of Burial: Mount Laurel Cemetery, Philadelphia
Publication: Mount Holly Herald
Aug 10, 1934
Page: 6
Column: 4
Notes: Aged 36, died at her home after a two year illness. She worked as a nurse is this area.

[NOTE: the above cemetery is wrong, Laura is definitely at West Laurel Hill.]

Cemetery records show this Anna Laura Romberger was interred August 7, 1934.

This daughter Anna Laura Romberger was born in Berrysburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Her birthdate varies; March of 1898 by census records, and Union Salem Church (Peace) records have her birth as July 27, 1898, recorded for her christening on November 9, 1901. A bio of her father lists the birthdates of many of her siblings, but it was written before her birth so that cannot be checked. Her death certificate breaks the tie, echoing exactly the Peace Church records. It is not known at this time if she ever married (no family recall ever hearing so) but it seems not as she was buried under her Romberger surname.

Laura spent her life with her family, growing up in rural Dauphin County and then Harrisburg by 1906. Her father died in 1916 and some years after that her mother, some unmarried siblings and Laura herself would move to Philadelphia. One of her siblings had a son whose mother was not present, and that son remembers her most favorably as a kind and supportive aunt genuinely concerned with his welfare.

This daughter was known by family to have been a nurse, and there were some rumblings among living family that she may have had a drug or alcohol problem; perhaps her passing of a two year illness may have driven that problem if it is true. Some more specifically recall her as suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and during her last days or hours, her high-minded sister Lila is recalled to have made some inappropriate, judgmental remark that Laura would likely have heard. Nonetheless, her death certificate tells us that she passed of chronic nephritis, a kidney condition, which she had been treated for at least since May of 1932. To have sought that help in 1932, she probably was already feeling poorly, and indeed, chronic kidney conditions can go on a long time, weakening the sufferer and eroding the appetite. As they can be very debilitating and had probably been at work before her 1932 consultation, perhaps it gave her reason to drink.

This cemetery family grouping of graves holds her mother Anna Laura, and two siblings, Frieda and Donald. Probably the spot was bought for young Laura's demise, since she was the first of any of them to pass away.

The family plot is very discreet, tucked all the way back at the end of the cemetery, overlooking the Schuylkill Expressway and nearby Manayunk and Roxborough. Go to the rear road, and look for the marker for Hendries which is currently between two shrubs as seen in the picture. The Rombergers are in the unmarked spot just aside of that stone, as indicated by the arrow in the picture.

Above the Romberger family is a stone for Weinacht, and above and to the right are stones for Bardo and Schaeffer.