Another Lawsuit by Herman Lutter

My great great grandfather, Herman Lutter, was born around 1860 in or near what is now called Neuhaus am Rennweg in Germany. By 1881 he was living in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States.

From his records, it seems that he had tumultuous relationships with people.

He split with his first wife, my great great grandmother Clara Rosalie Uhl (1865-1955), in 1888 when she was pregnant with their first and only child, Howard.

Around 1920, Herman purchased property in Spring Lake, Monmouth County, New Jersey. His second wife, Emma Lucinda Neubauer, remained in Newark, though she later moved to Spring Lake, where she died in 1946.

In 1921 he sued Albert Neubauer, the brother of his second wife, for room and board. Herman's initial win by default was overturned. One week before Herman died, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the decision.

When Herman died on July 3, 1924, he was in the process of divorcing Emma.

In his will, Herman left almost nothing, five dollars, to his son, Howard.

Today I found another lawsuit by Herman from 1922. He won. He sued John R Wynne for money owed on a car sale. Wynne's defense was that the car did not work after driving from Newark to Red Bank.

Newspapers.com is a pay site

The second wife of Herman's son was Fiorita Lorenz. Her first husband was James Howard Winnie, born around 1887 in Nevada. I wonder if the Wynne who Herman sued was related to this other Winnie.

What Became of Edgar Duryea's Marriages?

Jacob H Duryea (1850-1928) is related to my father through both of Jacob's parents, George W Duryea (1823-1864) and Rene Brewer (1824-1904).

In Jersey City, New Jersey, Jacob married twice, first to Harriet Dunham in 1873 and then to Marietta Dunham in 1874. I don't know if this was a recording error or if these marriages really happened. The women were listed with different parents. Harriet was the daughter of Henry and Jane. Marietta was the daughter of Lewis and Sarah.


Marietta Dunham (1852-1922) and Jacob Duryea had three children:

1. Charles Duryea (1874-1876), buried in the Brewer plot in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in New York.

2. Edgar Henry Duryea (1876-1926), buried in the Eyre/Duryea plot in Hoboken Cemetery in New Jersey.

3. John D Duryea (1880-1891), buried in the Eyre/Duryea plot in Hoboken Cemetery in New Jersey.


About the Eyre/Duryea plot in Hoboken Cemetery:

Jacob Duryea's sister, Letty Jane Duryea (1848-1889), was originally buried in Hoboken Cemetery. She died in Jersey City from complications of pregnancy. Letty's husband, Alfred DeCiplet Eyre (1848-1912), was buried in nearby Fairview Cemetery in Bergen County. At some point, Letty was reinterred at Fairview.

Henrietta Elizabeth Funtman (1815-1887), the mother of Alfred DeCiplet Eyre, was buried in this Hoboken plot and not moved.


While reviewing Duryea marriages in New Jersey, I was surprised to find a record for Edgar H Duryea, the only son of Marietta and Jacob to reach adulthood.

On May 7, 1897 in Hoboken, Edgar Duryea married Lillian Hagan. Lillian's father's name was John Hagan; her mother's first name was Mary, but the last name is hard to read. Maybe Bulley? They were from Germany.

Three years after this marriage, in the 1900 census in Jersey City, Edgar was single and living with his parents. I did not suspect an earlier marriage.

Rene Duryea was Rene Brewer (1824-1904), mother of Jacob Duryea.
Janette Lent was Jennet Conklin (1814-1902), the widow of Rene's maternal uncle, David Mann Lent (1811-1892).

Seven months after Edgar's wedding, he was in a wagon accident.

I have not found Edgar in the 1910 census. He was not with his parents. He registered for the draft for World War I. He was living at 213 East 49th Street in New York City. His nearest relative was his father, Jacob H Duryea, in Jersey City.

In the 1920 federal census, Edgar was still at this address in New York City as a boarder. With him was Elizabeth Duryea, age 39. Was she another wife?

Edgar died on August 29, 1926 at Fairmount Hospital in Jersey City from pneumonia.

His death certificate states that he was married, but the wife's name was "Can not learn." Informant was Edgar's father, Jacob.

Edgar's obituary gave no indication of a wife.

Edgar's gravestone in Hoboken Cemetery leaves room for inscription, but no wife joined him in the ground.

Sarah B LeBarron (1811-1886) was the maternal grandmother of Edgar Duryea.

What became of Edgar's wife or wives? Did he have any children?

When a DNA match appears with ties to Jersey City, but no surnames in common, the connection could be cousins such as Edgar. Although Edgar was a few generations back, he was a double relation. If Edgar had descendants, they could share Duryea and Brewer DNA with my father, his siblings, and their cousins in this branch.

Finding the Death Record of Charles Luther, 1919

Charles Luther (or Lutter), born in the 1860s in Germany, is likely a close relative of my great great grandfather, Herman Lutter (1860-1924).

I searched for Charles in:
Germany
Newark, New Jersey
Chicago, Illinois
Wisconsin
Brooklyn, New York
Connecticut

He was last seen in the 1915 New York State census in Brooklyn with his wife, Therese (Turnow or Doanow) and eight of their children.

In 1917 in Brooklyn, Therese, a divorcee, remarried to Frederick Brink. They eventually moved to Connecticut.


I sought a death certificate for Charles Luther because it could show his parents. I needed more information on Charles to figure out his relationship to my Lutter branch.

Well, I found Charles's death certificate. He returned to Newark, Essex County, New Jersey and died February 28, 1919 at the Newark City Hospital from pneumonia.

How do I know that this is the death certificate for the correct Charles Luther?

Burial was at Cemetery of The Evergreens in Brooklyn. The cemetery kindly responded to my burial inquiry. Charles Luther was buried in 1919 in the same plot as Theresa Brink, who died in 1949.

Charles' birth, 1862 in Germany, is a close enough match.

Charles' occupation was carpenter on the death certificate. In the 1884 Newark City Directory at 40 Rankin, living with my Herman, was Carl Luther, a cabinetmaker. In the 1910 federal census in Brooklyn, Charles was a carpenter.

Charles' residence on the death certificate was 290 Bergen Street in Newark. In the 1920 city directory for Newark, Charles C Lutter Jr, carp, resided at 290 Bergen. No other Lutters or Luthers are listed at this address.

Clara R was my great great grandmother, Clara Uhl.
Herman was my great great grandfather. Clara was his first wife.
Howard was the son of Clara and Herman.

Was Charles Luther a junior? Maybe it was an error in the city directories. Maybe he was not named after his father, but rather an uncle. Wilhelm Lutter is consistently listed as the father of Herman Lutter and his brother, Otto. Perhaps their father was Wilhelm Karl? Charles Luther named a son Charles William. (And another Otto Herman.)

Guardianship proceedings took place in Newark in 1919 for Charles "Luther or Lutter." These records are not online. The Charles Luther I seek would have left behind three children under the age of 18 (Alice, Charles William, and Otto Herman), so a guardianship would be consistent.

The death certificate stated that Charles Luther was married, though Charles himself was the informant. If Charles remarried after divorcing Therese in 1917, that record could provide the names of his parents. I need to check the Archives for a possible marriage.

The local papers were no help. Charles received a mere entry of his name in the Newark Sunday Call.

Frederick Brink (1846-1930), the second husband of Therese Turnow, is also buried at Evergreens Cemetery, but with his first wife, Christiana Rueger (1851-1893). They married in 1875 in New York City and had a few children together. I am still reconstructing his family. In 1894, one year after Christiana's death, Frederick Brink remarried to Dorothea Kloppmann (1851-1915).

Below are their obituaries from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

The Death of Elizabeth Duryea, 1901

After discovering that Elizabeth Duryea, widow of Joseph Henley (born Jones?), remarried to Augustus B Palmer in 1885, locating her death certificate was the next step.

According to her obituary in the Jersey Journal, Elizabeth died on March 4, 1901 in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey.

Note: GenealogyBank.com is not a free site.

New Jersey death certificates are not online. Death certificates are available on microfilm at the New Jersey State Archives, but are only filed alphabetically from 1904 through 1948. For a death in 1901, there is fortunately an index and it is online.

Using Ancestry.com's index of the New Jersey death index, two people named Elizabeth Palmer died in 1901. The image icon next to the entries links to the index, not the certificates.

Below are some of the microfilm rolls at the Archives for New Jersey deaths for the years 1901, 1902, and 1903.

The correct Elizabeth Palmer was death certificate number 3469.

According to her death certificate, Elizabeth was buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens, New York. The gravestone does not bear her name. She died of cancer of the breast.

Her parents are listed as Joseph L Scott and Sarah M.

Death certificates are great for finding out the prior generation- except when they aren't.

Elizabeth Duryea was the daughter of Sarah Moffitt (1815-1896) and John H[orton] Duryea. Elizabeth was born in 1836, a year likely accurate because Elizabeth was born after her father died in New York City in April of 1836.

Elizabeth lived her childhood in New York City with her mother's sister, Elizabeth Moffitt (1804-1886), wife of VanRensselaer Terry (1801-1857).

Elizabeth's mother, Sarah Moffitt, remarried to Joseph Scott. Elizabeth never knew her biological father and may have regarded Joseph Scott as her father. Or maybe the person providing the information for the death certificate thought that Joseph Scott was Elizabeth's father.

Elizabeth knew that her biological father was John H Duryea. She provided his name, not the name of Joseph L Scott, when she married Augustus B Palmer in 1885 in Jersey City.

Birth records are best for determining names of parents. Marriage records are good because the two people whose record it is- the marrying couple- provided the information themselves. Death records contain information provided by someone who may not have known the parents of the deceased, making them unreliable without supporting records.