Missing the Boat

Ship records of passengers can be informative, possibly revealing places of origin, occupations, and relations in the originating country as well as the destination country.

You can view indexes on the websites of the National Archives, Family Search (current catalog of passenger lists here), and Ancestry.

The most recent immigrant ancestor in my family tree is Herman Lutter (1860-1924). I have not (yet) found him on any passenger list. From his entries on the federal census of 1900 and 1920 in Newark, New Jersey, he gave his year of immigration as 1881. In 1910, it looks like his year of birth, 1860, was written instead of his year of immigration. His brother, Otto Luther (1845-1909), arrived in 1884.

On November 1, 1892 Herman Lutter swore his Declaration of Intent in Newark. Frank Geisler (1848-1937) swore to Herman's "good moral character." At that point in time, Herman was living apart from his wife, Clara Uhl (1865-1955), and their son, Howard Lutter (1889-1959).

Herman Lutter. Declaration of Intent.
Essex County, New Jersey. Naturalizations November 1, 1892.
Film 1317423.

1900 United States Federal Census. Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.
Herman Leuter, boarder of Frank Geisler. Born May 1860 in Germany. Immigrated in 1881. Naturalized.

1910 United States Federal Census. Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.
Herman Lutter, lodger of Frank Geisler. Age 50. Immigrated in 1860. Naturalized.
The year of immigration is probably wrong; he was born in 1860.
Joseph Hoffman Jr, age 9, was probably Joseph Edwin Hoffmire (1909-2007), a grandson of Frank Geisler.

1920 United States Federal Census. Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.
Herman Lutter. Immigrated 1881; naturalized in 1886.

1900 United States Federal Census. Harrison, Hudson County, New Jersey.
Otto Lutter, born January 1845 in Germany. Immigrated in 1884. Alien.

In 1881, the nearest port of entry to Newark, New Jersey was Castle Garden in Manhattan, New York. (Now a national monument called Castle Clinton.) Yet Herman and Otto do not seem to appear on any lists or indexes, including Germans to America.

Close proximity of Castle Garden in Manhattan to Newark, New Jersey

The port of entry may not be where the person settled. They could have arrived in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New Orleans. Even Canada!

In 1875, a family of Lutters arrived in New York, among them Hermann Lutter, age 15. This matches the year of birth of my Herman- 1860. We can look at their records to see that this is not my Herman.

First I found the passenger list for Steamer SS Silesia, which arrived in the Port of New York on March 19, 1875 from Hamburg and Havre- ports in Germany and France. Hamburg is over 200 miles north of Herman's hometown of Scheibe, now called Neuhaus am Rennweg, in Thuringia, Germany.

Map of modern-day Europe showing the 200 mile distance
between the port of Hamburg, Germany and Scheibe (now Neuhaus am Rennweg),
hometown of my Lutters

On this list, "Herm" Lutter was 15 years old and the brother of Aug Lutter, age 30. Among the people with them was Ottilia, their sister, though this name was scribbled. Herman and Otto had a sister named Ottilia. She ended up staying in Germany.

Passenger list of SS Silesia. Arrived in New York March 19, 1875.
The Lutter family is crossed out; they took an earlier ship.

The strikethrough lines signal that these people did not make the trip. This made sense since my Herman arrived in 1881, not 1875, but this is not him.

Passenger list of SS Herder. Arrived in New York March 11, 1875.

More digging revealed the reason for the crossed out names. The family took an earlier ship, SS Herder. On March 11, 1875, Hermann Lutter, age 16, arrived in New York with his family. The names varied a little from the other entry.

Next I looked for the companion record of this arrival. The departures were recorded in Hamburg. The Luther family was on a separate paper from the ledger book. Their place of origin was among the recorded information; however, I cannot read it. The transcription in the index is Salohow, Preußen. No such place. If accurate, this is not my Herman Lutter because he was from Scheibe.

The originating record of the Lutters' sail to the United States

In a future article, I will explore other Lutters from Newark who appeared on a passenger list bound for New York in 1867.

New York Proposes Rate Hikes to Thwart Genealogical Research

Over the years I’ve written about the difficulties in obtaining copies of vital records from the State of New York. The only way to receive a copy is to print out and physically mail a request, remit $22, then wait a few years for Albany to send a copy.

My latest orders have not been fulfilled. One year for the Cummings and Grant orders; three years for the Sheehy order.

New York claims a backlog of over 10,000 orders and that fulfilling them is almost impossible.

New York was able to figure out how to open the envelopes and cash the checks within weeks.

I suggested making the records digitally available online, which is what is happening with New York City records.

New York has responded. Their solution is to raise fees.

Memorandum in Support of these changes to pertinent New York laws

It is puzzling why Part U- the genealogical section of the Memorandum in Support of the proposed changed is called "Digitize Genealogical Records." Why called digitize? What is being digitized?

Raising the fee from $30 to $45 is their solution to ending the backlog. This is the fee under Section 4174 of the Public Health Law. Is this for only certified copies, of which genealogical copies are not? The current fee is $22, not $30, according to the website of the New York State Department of Health. Is this wrong?

Genealogical copies of births, marriages, and deaths are $22 from New York State Department of Health.
The website should have a disclaimer that you will not receive anything.

Raising fees would do nothing to end the existing backlog; however, it would lessen the rate of growth of the backlog by discouraging people from requesting more records. What would really decrease the growth of the backlog would be printing a disclaimer, such as “Our staff will not fill your order, but they will cash your check. Donate $45 to the State of New York now.” The backlog will remain because the orders were not fulfilled.

Also proposed is a research fee of $50 per hour. I'm not clear on when this would be invoked. At present, no research is performed, as no orders are processed. How long could this research endure? For example, minimum research on the part of the New York State Department of Health would have clarified that the request for the death certificate of Edmond Sheehy (died 1893 in Amenia) was incorrectly transcribed in their index as Edward Sheeby. Ten years later and I am still waiting for the death certificate. That is a lot of time.

In comparison, I can retrieve over one hundred certificates from microfilm in an all-day session at the New Jersey State Archives.

Also nervy is changing the statute to dispense with the requirement to maintain indexes to save themselves money after fighting against the request of Reclaim the Records to release those indexes.

In contrast, New York City is digitizing and publishing online for free its vital record collection.

New Jersey began state-wide collection of births, marriages, and deaths in 1848. For thirty years, the information was entered into ledger books and is available on microfilm at the New Jersey State Archives, online at a Family History Center for free, or online at home but behind a paywall at Ancestry. Certificates from 1878 forward are obtainable in person at the Archives in Trenton with cut-offs of 1924 for births and later for marriages and deaths. Mail orders are $10 per certificate with a return time of a few weeks.

Florida costs $10 per certificate with a return time of two weeks- the last time I ordered. More recent years are available than in New Jersey.

If New York cannot copy these records and cannot do it for $10, something is wrong. Very wrong.

Please share this information online to let New York know that its war on genealogy and history is not acceptable.

PS- While we are on the topic, what is the processing time of Connecticut? $20 for a death certificate. Waiting 22 months and counting.