Surprise Babies of 1916

My great-grandparents, Howard Lutter (1889-1959) and Ethel Laurel Winterton (1891-1962), were married in 1910 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. This union produced two children, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980) and Beryl Enid Lutter (1918-1989).

Beryl and Clifford, early 1920s,
at their maternal grandparents' home in Holmdel, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Howard divorced Ethel Laurel in 1927 for abandoning him and the children. Fiorita Winnie testified against Ethel Laurel. In 1928 Howard and Fiorita married.

In the last article, I wrote about Ernst Lutter, who died in Newark in 1916. A DNA match prompted me to realize that I had not collected the Lutter deaths from the year 1916.

Two Lutters died in New Jersey in 1916. One was Ernst. The other was a newborn baby of Howard Lutter and Margaret Quackenbush. Not the same Margaret as my cousin Margaret Quackenbush (1899-1940).

Death Certificate
Female baby Lutter died May 9, 1916
in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey

As I sat in the Archives looking at this death certificate, I was surprised. Howard had made a baby outside of his marriage. And- this document was out there, waiting for me to find it.

I had to find out more. Howard was still married to Ethel Laurel when this child arrived in 1916. Howard and Ethel Laurel stayed together and produced another child in 1918.

There are some avenues on this death certificate for possible additional information:
-hospital
-cemetery
-undertaker

Newark City Hospital no longer exists. It became Martland Medical Center and then was engulfed by University Hospital, which was then engulfed by Rutgers University. They do have an archival collection. More about this later in this article.

Newark City Cemetery was a burial area for the indigent. Nobody claims to know where the records are.

Holle Funeral Home still exists. Other Lutters were processed through this same funeral home. There is no record of this baby in the records.

I did not find a notice of death in the newspapers the Newark Evening News and the Newark Sunday Call.

As I sat at home, I thought to myself that there was no birth certificate for this baby. I had all the Lutter birth certificates issued through 1923. In earlier times, if a baby was born and quickly died, a death certificate may have been issued without a corresponding birth certificate.

I checked my files anyway.

Ten years ago I had indeed copied a birth certificate for a baby born in 1916 to Howard Lutter. I had tucked it away, planning to investigate this other Howard Lutter. This was a disorganized approach and the certificate became quickly forgotten as the ancestors and current life piled in.

Birth certificate of Baby Lutter #2 born May 9, 1916 in Newark.
This had been in my collection since 2014.

Howard Lutter had created a baby outside his marriage. I had been sitting on this information for over ten years.

I noticed a faint "#2" written after the surname. This baby was a twin. I did not have a birth certificate for the other twin at home in my files.

The birth index is now available from home. No such index was available in 2014.

Index of Births in New Jersey 1915-1919
H & M had twins on May 9, 1916 in Newark.
Database online Ancestry

For whatever reason, I copied certificate 357 but not the 356- the first born twin.

Back to the Archives I went.

Birth certificate of baby number 1, a male.
This baby has no corresponding death certificate.

Birth certificate of baby number 2, a female.
This baby died the same day.

Howard Lutter had a son on May 9, 1916 who lived. What happened to him? I do not know. If he survived into adulthood and had descendants, they have not tested their DNA.

I tracked down Margaret Quackenbush. She married, had children, and died. I corresponded with a grandchild of hers. The family had no knowledge of these twins.

The children raised by Margaret's siblings were reviewed in light of this new information. Nobody in the Quackenbush family raised a baby boy with this birthdate. He is not buried in any family plots.

If adopted, he does not appear on the Surrogate's Docket in Essex County, New Jersey. I requested a search of the files, but I do not expect cooperation from the Surrogate's staff.

Doctor D L Golan signed the birth certificates. This was Daniel Leonard Golan (1892-1969). He briefly appeared in the Newark city directory of 1917. He served in World War I, then moved to back to New York, where he married and practiced medicine.

Golann D Leonard physician
1917 Newark City Directory

Dr Daniel Leonard Golann's record of military service World War I
U.S., World War I Jewish Servicemen Questionnaires, 1918-1921
Collection at Ancestry

Dr Daniel Leonard Golann's summary of career before World War I

Dr Golann's questionnaire about his wartime service lists him as an intern at Newark City Hospital from 1915-1916. This comports with the birth certificates.

I visited the George F Smith Library of the Health Sciences at Rutgers University (University of Medicine and Dentistry) in Newark. Thank you to the staff there for meeting with me and showing me historical documents and pictures.

Dr Golann was listed in a chronological recording of interns, but none of his records survive in this repository. The library's archives offered an image of Newark City Hospital as it appeared in 1915.

Newark City Hospital, 1915
Special Collections, George F Smith Library of the Health Sciences

Howard and Ethel Laurel were living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1915. This is where baby Clifford was born. In the divorce papers, Howard explained their moves to New York City, Philadelphia, then back to Newark. Was he travelling for work or to escape personal problems he created?

In 1915, Howard resided in Philadelphia then in Newark.
Does his use of the pronoun "I" indicate that he was not relocating with his wife?

Howard had nerve calling Ethel Laurel a bad wife in the divorce complaint.

We are left with a missing male baby born May 9, 1916 in Newark, New Jersey.

Takeaway research method:

My current method is to log all information into a family tree in Family Tree Maker. Had I done this ten years ago, I probably would not have lost track of the birth certificate from 1916 and two men named Howard Lutter.