Edward Twaller was born December 10, 1911, in New York City, the son of Fredrick and Amelia (Menje) Twaller. His parents were both native born New Yorkers, and his father worked as a "beef carrier" for Swift and Company, and later for Victor Lynn Lines, Inc. They made their home at 412 W. 49th Street in Manhattan. Other children in the family were: Anna born in 1904, Amelia K. born around 1906, John E. born in 1908 (and died in 1917) and Helen Marie born in 1910.
In 1940, at the age of 28, Edward was the only child still living with his parents. His sister, Helen, with her husband Charles Van Ness and their three sons, lived in the next apartment. 412 W. 49th Street was a narrow, grey stone building of five stories, and the Twaller/VanNess clan took up two of the fifteen units available for rent. Edward was working as an auto mechanic, and his father and next-door brother in law both worked for the WPA- the Works Progress Administration. The WPA was one of President Franklin Roosevelt's programs designed to get the country working again after the devastation of the Great Depression.
The 1940's were hard on the family, the father, Fredrick, died on June 28, 1943; and the mother, Amelia, on February 14, 1946. Edward later moved to Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, New York, which was his final address.
Edward Twaller died on December 23, 1996, aged 85, at Florence Nightingale Nursing Home, and was buried on Hart Island.
Sources: U.S. Social Security Death Index; U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007; 1910 and 1920 U.S. Federal Censuses; 1915 and 1925 New York, State Census; U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Vol. 2; U.S., WWI Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Fredrick); U.S. WWII Draft Registration Cards, 1942; New York, New York, Death Index, 1862-1948; and Ancestry.com.