Typed Indexes, part two

Recent additions to the website of the Latter-Day Saints include an index to New Jersey marriages from 1678 through 1985.  The site is free, which is great in any field.  But:  use this resource with caution.  You still need to retrieve the original marriage record.

The marriage of Herman Lutter and Clara Uhl turns up in the index.

 Compare the index entry to the actual marriage return.

The year of the marriage differs.  The index has 1887; the actual return shows 1888.  The ages of the bride and groom are the same on both the index and the return; however, the index lists the years of birth for both parties.  The birth year is nowhere on the marriage return.  I don't know who decided that these were the correct years and added them to the typed index.  That is why you must exercise caution when relying upon such information, and always try to get as close to the original as possible.

Funeral Card

A bundle of papers kept by an older relative could be a treasure chest.  I have a few items from past generations.  One is a funeral card for Katherine Powers, died 22 September 1952.  The funeral home was M. J. Corrigan of Jersey City.

Who is Katherine Powers?  I do not know.  I have asked living family members (usually a good place to start).  Nobody knows.  "Maybe a neighbor," was one reply.  On my next trip to Jersey City, I will have to look for an obituary.  I don't know if Powers was her married name.  None of the Katherine Powers in the 1930 census stand out as a good match.  Why was this funeral card kept, while other important documents did not survive?  I will eventually find out.

Following Daughters

Louise and Charles Lutter were parents of five known children- all daughters.  This could spell disaster for tracing this family, as women of the late 1800s tended to marry and change their last names.

1880 federal census, 52 Belmont Avenue, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
ED 81, page 15, enumerated 3 June 1880

Fortunately, all of these sisters and their children can be traced with little difficulty.  In his 1920 will, their father lists each of them by their married names.

Will of Charles Lutter, proved 12 January 1921 in Essex County, New Jersey

When you get stuck trying to trace the life of one sibling, switch to another sibling.  Sometimes siblings are living in the same house or on the same block.

1900 federal census, 342 Camden Street, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
ED 132, page 2A, enumerated 8 June 1900

Finding Missing Children (of the 1800s and 1900s)

Until recent times, deaths of young people, including babies, was not uncommon.  It is very easy to miss several children of a marriage if they their short lifespan was in between census years.  I try to collect all members of a family, even those who did not marry and have children.  They reveal naming patterns and can lead you to undiscovered family plots and addresses.  In New Jersey, birth records were not recorded until the late 1800s, and most births did not start to get reported to the state until the early 1900s.  The State of New Jersey has no official online index to search for these births, though familysearch.org does publish some births for New Jersey.

What does get reported are deaths.  Although you may not find a birth certificate for a baby, you should find the death certificate.  You may not know that the baby existed until you come across the death certificate.  One of the questions on the 1900 federal census (for married women, not men) was the number of children they had, and then the number of children still living.  For some people, I can prove this number; with others, it seems hopeless.

Johanna V. Bossert was one such child.  I did have an entry for her at Woodland Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey, but she was buried in the baby section with no headstone and no other family buried with her.  She had no death notice in the Newark Evening News.  I did not know whose child she was.  I found her death certificate by searching the microfilm reel for 1912 for another Bossert.  (Death certificates in New Jersey are mercifully filed alphabetically starting around 1900.)  Because she was only one year old at death, she was not around to appear in the 1910 census, and gone by the 1920 census.  Now I know that Johanna was an important name in this family, though she remains the only person discovered so far bearing this name.

Getting Closer

A small newspaper blip about the will of Herman Lutter led me to find his actual will, filed in Monmouth County, at the Archives in Trenton.  The article referred to "the three children of his sister who lives in Germany."  I wanted names and a location.  I found them in the will.

Red Bank Register, 23 July 1924

Will of Herman Lutter, proved 16 July 1924 in Monmouth County, New Jersey

The newspaper provided a few details.  It is best to get as close to the original source as possible; in this case, the actual will.  Herman Lutter's will names his deceased sister, Ottillia, as well as her three children: Paul, Edeline, and Anna Michel.  I also received confirmation that I need to be looking in Thueringen for records.