Michael Lawrence Van Densen
Michael Lawrence Van Densen, called Mike, was born Laurens Matheus van Densen on 22 December 1878 at Blerick, in the municipality of Maasbree, in the Dutch province of Limburg. Blerick is a village on the west bank of the Maas River, facing the town of Venlo. His father, Jacobus van Densen, was a day laborer. His mother was Wendelina Hubertina Lankes of Belfeld, who was called Angelina at Blerick.
He was born in the house of his grandfather Gerard van Densen, a clog maker then in his seventies. The household also held his grandmother Gertrudis Janssen, two unmarried uncles, Laurens and Peter, his older sisters Anna Gertrudis and Hendrica Gertrudis, and from 1883 his little brother Johannes Gerardus. Both grandparents died in 1882, when he was three. He carried his given name from his uncle Laurens and from his great-grandfather Laurens van Densen, who had died at Meerlo in 1832. In America Laurens became Lawrence, and he went by Michael.
He settled in Brown County, Wisconsin, a county with a large Dutch Catholic community around Hollandtown and Little Chute. There he married Jacobina Vandehey, who was born at Hollandtown in 1879. Their nine known children were George Jacob (1904), Lawrence (1905), Marie H. (1907), Cecilia H. (1909), John Bernard (1911), Rosella Petronella (1914), Leona Marie (1917), Joseph John (1919) and Bernard G. (1921). Rosella was born at Greenleaf, Brown County, in 1914. The first son carried the name of Michael's father, Jacob.
On 13 August 1914 he was naturalized as an American citizen in Brown County. The clerk wrote his birth as 24 December 1879 at "Verick, Holland", a mishearing of Blerick. An Angeline Vandensen, wife of Jacob Vandensen, born on 13 January, the birthday of Michael's mother, is buried at Wrightstown in the same county, so his parents very probably followed him to Wisconsin.
By 1940 the family lived at Menasha, Winnebago County, where the census taker wrote him as "Micke". He was still there in 1950. Mike Van Densen died on 14 July 1955 at Fox Crossing, Winnebago County, aged 76. He is buried in Saint Marys Cemetery, Menasha.
Children
Rosella Petronella Van Densen (1914-2005)
Sources
If Michael Lawrence Van Densen is in your family, start your own tree.
Cite: Heirology, "Michael Lawrence Van Densen (1878-1955)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/michael-lawrence-van-densen-1878-1955-e0a3b5.