Showing posts with label Chicago Illinois. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago Illinois. Show all posts

Monday, October 9, 2017

Another Piece of the Puzzle in Chicago: A Lutter Marriage

The marriage record arrived for Charles Lutter, the possible brother of my great great grandfather, Herman Lutter.  This record is from the Cook County Clerk in Illinois. Charles was 25 years old when he married Theresa Doanow in 1887 in Chicago.




Like the marriage record of the other possible brother, Alexander Lutter, in 1890, marriage records from this time period do not contain the names of the parents.




Alexander Lutter died in 1897 in Chicago; his death record does not list his parents.

Charles Lutter died probably in Brooklyn, New York between 1915 to 1917; I cannot find the record.

So I do not know the parents of Alexander or Charles to tie them into my Lutter line.


But with Charles' marriage record we have a possible lead.  Unlike Alexander, Charles was married by a pastor from a church: Carl G Zipf of the First Evangelical Reformed Church, 181 Hastings Street.  A church record might list additional information, such as names of parents, witnesses, and towns of origin.  Maybe even the children were baptized there.

Discovering this church's transformation was a group effort (thank you everyone!).

In 1887, the church was at 181 Hastings according to the city directory.  Today, there is no such church or street.



The Newberry, a Chicago library, has an online directory of church records.  A possible listing for this church:



On the "Our History" page of The First United Church of Christ, the church states it was chartered in 1865 as the First German Reformed Church and was on Hastings Street.  This could be what I'm looking for.  No email address, so I will write to them and ask if they have records and would be willing to search for me.






Monday, September 4, 2017

Expanding the Lutter Branch

I have more information on the first direct line Lutter DNA match found at Ancestry.com last month among my father's results.

This DNA match descends from Charles Lutter, born about 1862 in Germany.  Charles may have been a brother to my great great grandfather, Herman Lutter (1860-1924).  If not brothers, they were close cousins.  The amount of shared DNA skews beyond the parent-child relationship, so the amount of shared DNA alone will not tell us how current descendants are precisely related.

The family tree below illustrates the possible relationship.


Explanation of the Relations

- The father of Otto and Herman Lutter is given as William or Wilhelm on their records; their mother's name differed every time.
- Ottillia's age is unknown; Otto was born in the 1840s.  Herman and the other possible siblings were born in the 1860s.  They might not share the same mother.
- Herman Lutter's will named Otto as his brother and Ottillia as his deceased sister.  No other siblings were mentioned.
- Ottillia had three children according to Herman's will.  They were Paul, Edeline, and Anna Michel and they lived in Neuhaus, Theuringen, Germany.  I do not know what became of them.
- Otto had children, but only one, Augusta, lived to adulthood.  She had one child, James Michael Kittson (1919-2003), who had no known issue.


Explanation of the DNA

The amount of shared DNA is from Ancestry.com.  One of the matches would have to share results with my account in order for me to see how much DNA they share with each other.  Ideally, they would both upload to GedMatch.com so that I could see the shared segments on my father's genome and attribute those areas to Lutter inheritance.

Charles' descendant and my father are second cousins, once removed if they above diagram is correct.  They share 150 cM of DNA, which is on the high end, but still within range, of the expected amount of DNA shared between people of this relation.

Alexander's descendant and my father are third cousins, once removed.  They share only 23 cM of DNA.  Once we reach the third cousin level, we might see no shared DNA.  So this amount is within the range of expected DNA.


The Paper Trail

The only clue that Herman was related to a Charles Lutter is in the Newark, New Jersey city directory for 1884.  Herman, a wheelwright, and Carl Luther, a cabinet maker, both resided at 40 Rankin.


The other DNA match at Ancestry.com is descended from Alexander Lutter (1864-1897), the same Alexander Lutter who I tracked in Chicago because someone by this name was a witness to Herman Lutter's marriage to Clara Uhl in Newark, New Jersey in 1888.  The DNA match showed that I picked the correct Alexander Lutter.  But how was Alexander Lutter related?

In Chicago, Charles and Alexander Lutter lived together for several years.  This shows a relationship between them.




In 1887 in Chicago, Charles Lutter married Theresa Doanow (spelled many ways, even with a T).  I ordered this record, but do not expect to see the names of parents because Alexander's marriage record from 1890 did not ask the names of parents.




Charles and Theresa had four children in Chicago.  Charles' last entry in the Chicago city directories was 1897, when Alexander died.  The 1898 directory listed Ottelia as Alexander's widow.



Charles had moved to Wisconsin sometime between the birth of Martha in August of 1895 and Emma in February of 1900.



Charles and family remained in Wisconsin for the 1905 state census.


Charles' last child was Otto Herman Lutter, born in Wisconsin in 1907.  The index is online; Charles' birthplace is given as Saxony.  I ordered the record to see if a town is provided.




Charles moved again, this time to Brooklyn, New York.  He and his family appeared in Brooklyn in the federal 1910 census and the 1915 state census.

In 1917, Charles' wife, Theresa, remarried to Fredrick Brink in Brooklyn.  They eventually moved to Connecticut.

I don't see an entry in the New York City death index that matches Charles Lutter.  His death certificate might provide the names of his parents.


Questions and Further Research

So what became of Charles Lutter?  He probably died between 1915 and 1917, but where?

Alexander Lutter's wife, Ottilia Dalke, died in 1904, orphaning their three children, who went to the custody of Gustav and Herman Schwabe.  Were these men related?  Why didn't Charles take in Alexander's children?

Alexander's children kept accounts of their spending.  I purchased these records years ago through eBay.  One of the children, Emma, listed names and addresses, but no Lutter was among the entries.  Why?

Why didn't Herman Lutter mention Alexander and Charles in his will?  They predeceased him, but they had living children.  Were they cousins and not brothers?



Sunday, May 8, 2016

Death Certificate Not Enough

The death certificate for Alexander Lutter has arrived.  He died in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois on December 23, 1897.  Unfortunately, his parents are not listed.  He was 33 years old when he died of "fatty degeneration of the heart."  Is he a brother of my great great grandfather, Herman Lutter?  We still do not know.




I obtained the date of death from a local newspaper, but the Cook County Archives were initially unable to locate a certificate.  (Alexander's wife, Ottilie Dahlke, died in 1904.  Her death certificate was easily found and listed Waldheim Cemetery as the place of burial.  Two cemeteries share this name, but neither could locate a record of this Lutter branch.  One is still named Waldheim; the other is now Forest Home Cemetery.)



Alexander Lutter does not appear in the online index through Cook County's search page.  Actually, no deaths for the year 1897 appear in this index.



Recently FamilySearch.org produced an index of deaths in Cook County.  Alexander Lutter appeared.  I reapplied for the death certificate via postal mail to the Cook County Clerk and received the death certificate in a few weeks.

The death certificate referenced a coroner's report.  An online index provided the location of this record.  I sent away for a copy.  The slightest clue could help place this piece of the puzzle into a larger picture.

This is done as a quest to find Alex Lutter, a witness to the marriage of my great great grandparents, Herman Lutter (1860-1924) and Clara Uhl (1864-1955) in 1888 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.  I find no record of an Alexander Lutter in Newark and no connection between the Chicago Lutters and my Lutters.  Herman Lutter's will mentioned children of two siblings, Otto and Ottilie, but not Alexander.

The only hint that tells me that I could be on the right path is a DNA match at AncestryDNA to a great great granddaughter of Alex Lutter and Ottlie Dahlke through their daughter, Emma, who married Frank Scaar.  This person has not responded to my inquiries.



Saturday, July 4, 2015

DNA Link for Newark and Chicago Branches

Someone with a Lutter ancestor has appeared in my DNA matches (autosomal) from AncestryDNA.  This has never happened before.  (Even the Y-DNA test produced no matches.)

Possible relative in AncestryDNA matches for Jody
(Name and picture blocked by Jody)


The family tree for this DNA cousin had one Lutter ancestor, Emma Lutter, from Illinois.
Emma Lutter (1892-1948) in the family tree of Jody's DNA cousin

I know this Emma Lutter.  She lived in Chicago and married Frank Scaar.  I have Emma's bank book from the year 1907.
Emma Lutter's bank book.  Gustav Schwabe was her guardian.

The bank book for Emma and her siblings, Adolph and Gertrude, were not handed down to me as family heirlooms.  They were purchased on eBay.

The bank books caught my attention because I researched a man named Alex Lutter from Chicago.  Emma, Adolph, and Gertrude were his children.  I was looking for Alex Lutter because he witnessed the marriage in 1888 in Newark, New Jersey, of my great great grandparents, Hermann Lutter (1860-1924) and Clara R Uhl (1864-1955).  


Signature of witness Alex Lutter


Aside from this marriage record and the newspaper announcement of the nuptials, I found no traces of Alex Lutter in Newark, New Jersey.  Instead, I found a man named Alexander Lutter in Chicago.  In 1890 he naturalized, registered to vote, and married Ottilie Dahlke.


cookcountyvitalrecord.uscertificates.com
(fee-based site)



Alexander Lutter died in Chicago on December 23, 1897, age 33.  (Born about 1864.)  His wife died May 23, 1904, leaving the three children orphaned.

Alexander Adolph Lutter (1895-1969), the son of Alex and Ottilie, married Anna Kabitzke.  Anna's family contacted me.  The couple had no known children.  (Her relative was the first to write a guest blog post.)

Alexander the son filed for a passport.  Below is his photo from the application.  Alexander wrote that his father came to the United States from Germany in 1885 and resided in Chicago, Illinois for "12 years, uninterruptedly," from 1885-1897.
Alexander Adolph Lutter (1895-1969)
Is there a family resemblance?



If the father Alexander lived in Chicago from his arrival in 1885 until his death in 1897, this contradicts the voter registration from the year 1890, where Alexander is stated to have lived in Illinois for only one year.  Then I considered the source and decided that this information was not too reliable:  the informant was not even born until 1895 and was two years old when his father passed, so he likely has no personal knowledge of his father and no older relative to ask.

So how is Alexander Lutter (1864-1897) of Chicago related to my Lutter line of Newark?  We don't know- yet.  Let's hope that the submitter of the DNA contacts me and provides more clues.

With a birth date in 1864, Alexander Lutter could be the brother of my great great grandfather, Hermann Lutter, who was born about 1860.  In his will in 1924, Hermann mentioned two siblings, both deceased:  his brother Otto (1845-1909), formerly of Harrison, Hudson County, New Jersey; and his sister, Ottillia, formerly of Neuhaus, Thueringen, Germany.  If Alexander is another sibling, why was there no mention of Alexander or his children, three of whom were alive in 1924?


Monday, October 11, 2010

Another Great eBay Find

A name that could be Alex Lutter witnessed the 1888 marriage of Herman Lutter to Clara Uhl in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.


I can't find Alex Lutter in Newark.  I can find Alex Lutter in Chicago.  He is dead before the 1900 census.  He left behind a wife, Odelia, and three children, Emma, Adolph, and Gertrude.  By the 1910 census, Odelia is dead, and the children are wards of Gustav Schwabe.

1910 census, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois; ED 897; page 18B; enumerated 29 April 1910.

Their bank books turned up in an auction on eBay.  This is incredible.


These little bank books are mostly accountings of monthly expenses, perhaps because the children were drawing from some kind of an inheritance from their deceased parents.


Expenses of Adolph Lutter


Expenses of Emma Lutter- music lessons from Miss E. McIntyre

Expenses of Gertrude Lutter
The best part of these little bank books was written by Emma.  She wrote names and addresses, perhaps of relatives.  None from Newark.


Friends or relatives of Emma Lutter
Except for Mrs. Jerry Shaw of Boston, everyone else resides in Clinton, Iowa.  I don't see the connection at this time.  Alex and Odelia Lutter, the parents, were from Germany.  The Iowa state census for various years is available at ancestry.com.  Most of these people are easily found, though the connection remains unclear.  The 1925 Iowa state census is amazing, listing the parents and birthplaces of those enumerated.  (Use with caution- this is not primary information!)

Iowa state census, 1925, for Albert and Bertha Lorenzen at 435 1st Avenue, Clinton.  His parents were Paul Lorenzen and Christine Powers; her parents were Charles Kohler and Sophia Kamp.