Minna Michel of South Orange

The other Michel person who inherited under the will of Herman Lutter was Minna Michel. She signed a release on March 31, 1926 in South Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. (She signed "Minna." The typed document spelled her first name as "Mina.")

Minna Michel was not named in the will. Paul Michel was named, but he is not among the people who signed a release.

So who was Minna? And what happened to Paul?

South Orange lies a few miles west of the City of Newark, where Herman spent most of his adult life. Herman specified the residence of his Michel nieces and nephew as Neuhaus in Germany; not South Orange in New Jersey. Did Herman know that some family had relocated to New Jersey? He did not know that Anna had moved to Dresden and Edeline to Grimma.

I found a woman named Minnie Michel living in South Orange, later called Maplewood.

Michel was Minnie's married name. In 1891, Wilhelmine Pauline Knecht married George Christian Louis Michel in New York City.

He was 28 years old; born in Gladenbach (around 1863).
His parents: Carl Michel and Caroline Ulrich.
She was 21 years old; born in Stuttgart, Germany (around 1870).
Her parents were Johann Friedrich Knecht and Caroline Siegle.

You can view New York City records online.
https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov

I don't see the connection between this Mina Michel, born Knecht, and the children of Ottilia Luther and Florenz Michel. Ottilia was born around 1855 in Scheibe (later named Neuhaus) in Thuringia. She was too young to be a mother to Mina Knecht (born 1870) or George Michel (born 1863).

If the connection is to George Michel, he was from Gladenbach, which is about 114 miles west of Neuhaus.

I may have pursued the wrong Minna Michel. My findings on this Minna and her family are detailed below.

George Michel and Minna Knecht had six children:

1. Franziska Katharina Karolina Michel born April 2, 1892 in New York City.

2. Christian "Charles" George Michel born June 3, 1893 in New York City.

3. Frederick John Michel born January 13, 1895 in New York City.

4. Helena Maria Michel born August 16, 1899 in New York City.

5. Marie Sophia Michel born March 5, 1901 in New York City.

6. George William Michel born January 12, 1911 in South Orange, New Jersey.

Thanks to the newly-online New York City vital records, the birth certificates for the first five children are below. George's birth certificate had to be copied at the Archives in Trenton, New Jersey.

In 1938, George Michel, age 75, died at his home, 22 Lindsley Avenue in Maplewood. He was buried at Restland Memorial Park in East Hanover, Morris County, New Jersey.

Minnie died in 1954, also at the family home. She was 83 years old.

--Frances, the oldest child, was last seen in the 1930 census living with her parents in Maplewood.

--Charles (1893-1968), the second child, married Anna F Lehrer (1900-1992). They had two children (birth certificates below).

1. Dorothy Frances Michel, born September 22, 1921 in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey. In 1949 she married Harry Lindblad. She died April 14, 2010.

2. Marion Ruth Michel, born July 4, 1923 in Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. She married someone with the surname Moore. She died January 28, 2004.

--The third child, Frederick John, married Mabel Murphy (1899-1988) in 1920 in Utica, Oneida County, New York. They had one child, Robert John Michel (1929-2010). Frederick died August 8, 1974.

--The fourth child, Helena, died in 1969. She was buried at Restland Memorial Park. I found no indications that she married or had children.

--The fifth child, Marie Sophia Michel, was born and died in 1901 in New York City.

--The sixth and final child, George William Michel, was the only one born in New Jersey. In 1934 he married Marie Elizabeth Krumwiede (1912-1993). The marriage certificate is below.

In the 1940 census, George and Marie were living in Newark with George Junior, born around 1938.

327 Florence Avenue, Newark, New Jersey

George died in 1966. He is buried at Restland Memorial Park in East Hanover, New Jersey- the same cemetery as his parents.

If any descendants of these Michel and/or Knecht families read this, please reach out.