Connecting the Lutters of Newark, New Jersey

A DNA match caused me to revisit the Other Lutters of Newark, New Jersey. This is what I call the people using the surname Lutter or Luther who lived in Newark in the 1800s and early 1900s. They may or may not have been related to my direct immigrant ancestor, Herman Lutter (1860-1924).

Herman arrived in 1881 after most of the Other Lutters had already arrived, bought homes, and created more Lutters. Herman did not associate with them, at least not on paper. 

Shared DNA between Jody's aunt and the descendant of Ernst.
AncestryDNA
One segment. As of this writing, Ancestry offers no chromosome browser.

At AncestryDNA, my paternal aunt showed a 24 centimorgen match to a great grandson of Ernst Lutter (1841-1916).

The question: Is Ernst Lutter related to my Lutter line?

We are looking at autosomal DNA. We know that there is a connection somewhere between one of my aunt's ancestral lines and one of this DNA cousin's lines. We cannot tell at Ancestry if Lutter DNA is the source of this shared segment.

We must turn to paper documentation.

Ernst Lutter left Prussia and arrived in New York in 1867 and settled in Newark, New Jersey. He travelled with his wife, Charlotte Fischer, their baby, Carl, Ernst's mother, Wilhelmine, and Charlotte's sister, Louise. Note that the relationships are not detailed on this record. I am filling them in based on review of other records.

1867 ship passenger record:
Ernst Luther, Charlotte, Wilhelmine, Carl, and Louise Fischer

I have no ship record for Herman. Having this robust record for Ernst is wonderful.

In the 1870 federal census in Newark, Ernst and Charlotte are listed with two more children, Bertha and Florence.

1870 Newark, New Jersey
Household of Ernst Lutter

Where was Wilhelmine, Ernst's mother, in 1870?

She was residing with Charles Luther in Newark. Next to them was the household of Robert Luther.

1870 Newark, New Jersey
Households of Charles Luther and Robert Luther

Note that in these entries for 1870, Ernst's place of birth was Turingen, while Charles and Robert were born in Schwarzburg Rudolstadt. This is why I did not link the three together in the early stages of research.

Charles and Louise married in New York City in 1870. This was after the 1870 census was taken and after the birth of their first child.

This marriage record is full of details. The full names of bride and groom were written. Charles August John Lutter married Louise Wilhelmine Johanne Fischer. He was born in Scheibe, Schwarzburg Rudolstadt, Germany. His parents were Florence Lutter and Wilhelmine Lutz.

Scheibe is where my Herman Lutter was born- but in Türingen, not Schwarzburg Rudolstadt. I think what may have happened was that the Lutters who left Scheibe in the 1860s knew the area as Schwarzburg Rudolstadt. By 1880, when Herman was preparing to leave, Türingen took over control of a broader area, including Scheibe.

Map circa 1870 showing the German areas from which Lutters and Fischers hail.
(The map is written in Italian.)

Charlotte and Louise Fischer were from nearby Meiningen.

Wilhelmina Luther died October 17, 1872 in Newark. The names of her parents and place of burial are not provided on her entry in the death ledger book.

Wilhelmina Luther died October 17, 1872 in Newark.
Deaths New Jersey. Book AU.

After finding this DNA match, I realized that I did not have the death certificate of Ernst Lutter from 1916. This document could provide the names of parents. I had skipped the year 1916 entirely as I collected Lutter death certificates. (I mention this because one other Lutter died in 1916 and requires her own future article.)

Death certificate of Ernst Lutter, died August 14, 1916 in Newark.
His parents are written on this record.

Ernst's parents were Floyd Lutter and Wilhelmine Lutz- according to the death certificate.

Robert Lutter died in 1886. His death certificate did not give names of his parents.

Charles Lutter died in 1920. His parents were listed as Florian Lutter and Amelia.

We have another sibling who links to this group as evidenced by her own documents. Johanetta died in 1904. Her parents were listed as Florenz and Wilhelmina Ludder. On her second marriage record in 1898 to Ludwig Lichtenfels (1826-1904), her parents were Florenz Lutter and Wilhelmine Lutz.

Plus, my aunt shares DNA with a descendant of Johanetta.

Ernst and Charles were buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Newark. Robert and Johanetta were buried in Woodland Cemetery in Newark.

Family Tree
Children of Florenz Lutter and Wilhelmine Lutz
born 1830s and 1840s in Scheibe, Schwarzburg Rudolstadt.
(Created at Canva.com)

There is another Lutter in Newark during this time period: Emilie Lutter, born about 1839. In 1866 in Newark she married Franz Jaeger. Is she another child of Florenz Lutter and Wilhelmine Lutz? She died in 1892 and was buried in Woodland Cemetery. No parents were listed on her death certificate.

My uncle shares DNA with a descendant of Emilie. 

In 1873 Franz Jäger was a godparent at the baptism of Emma Franziska Anna Lutter at First German Presbyterian Church in Newark. Emma was a daughter of Ernst Lutter and Charlotte Fischer. She died in 1884 and was buried in Woodland Cemetery.

Baptism of Emma Lutter, 1873 in Newark.
Frank Jäger was a godparent.
Collection at Ancestry

So how do these Lutters connect to mine? Not sure. My great great grandfather, Herman Lutter, had an uncle named Johann Georg Florentin Lutter, born September 25, 1799. Maybe he was "Florenz," husband of Wilhelmine Lutz and father of Johanetta, Ernst, Robert, and Charles; and perhaps Emilie.

Current map showing location of Scheibe (now Neuhaus am Rennweg) in Germany

In an upcoming article I will discuss the other Lutter death from 1916.

The Unknown Final Resting Place of Herman Lutter

In a quest to discover the burial location of Herman Lutter (1860-1924), my great great grandfather, I procured further documents relating to the disposition of his estate.

Herman was a resident of Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, from the time of his immigration around 1881 until the early 1920s. According to the 1922 Newark City Directory, Herman moved to Asbury Park.

Clara R Lutter (born Uhl) was Herman's first wife and the mother of Howard Lutter.

Herman died July 3, 1924.

Where was he buried? This is a standard question for everyone I study.

The death certificate and obituary list Fairmount as his final resting place. This is a large cemetery on the outskirts of the City of Newark. Both of Herman's wives are buried here.

But- Fairmount Cemetery has no record of receiving Herman's body. He was not buried in the days following his death on July 3, 1924. He has no individual plot. He is not listed in the plots with his wives. He is not listed in any mausoleum. 

Death of Herman Lutter
July 3, 1924 in Wall, Monmouth County, New Jersey

Obituary of Herman Lutter
The Newark Evening News is online and searchable for free for the years 1883-1926.

Manger Funeral home lists the place of interment as Fairview Cemetery, not Fairmount. No town was listed. I contacted three cemeteries of this name in New Jersey. All denied having a record of Herman:

Fairview Cemetery in Fairview, Bergen County

Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, Union County

Fair View Cemetery in Middletown, Monmouth County

Manger Funeral Home, Newark, New Jersey
(Project of the New Jersey Records Preservation Group)

Herman's will provided at least $600 for a headstone.

Someone (thank you M. L.) suggested I obtain copies of the accounting to find out who made the headstone and where it was delivered. So I wrote to Monmouth County. His will was probated in Monmouth County because he was a resident of Spring Lake in Monmouth County. No proceedings were listed in Essex County. 

You can find an index of proceedings for twenty of New Jersey's 21 counties at FamilySearch.org. (Morris County was removed.)

Unfortunately, no accounting was found. The only available documents were releases signed by the devisees to receive money from Herman's estate- $659 each to four people. No mention of a headstone.

The nieces and nephew named in the will:

• Gussie Kitson, daughter of Herman's brother, Otto Luther or Lutter (1845-1909)
• Paul, Edeline, and Anna Michel, children of Herman's sister, Ottillia

The names and locations of the people who signed releases helped me to further trace their lines:

• Gussie Kittson, daughter of Otto Lutter, signed in Harrison, Hudson County, New Jersey on January 6, 1926.
• Anna Heym, born Michel, signed in Neuhaus, Thueringen, Germany on March 4, 1926.
• Edeline Vorwerk, born Michel, signed in Germina, Saxony, Germany on March 16, 1926.
• Mina Michel signed in South Orange, Essex County, New Jersey on March 31, 1926.

Paul Michel, the third child of Ottillia, did not sign a release and there was no explanation of his absence.

I did not know who Mina Michel was and why she signed a release, as she was not mentioned in the will, but was delighted to see that she resided in nearby South Orange.

The next articles discuss these people.

Susan Bell and her Marriages

A DNA match of my father's contacted me.  She and my father share a small segment of DNA.  The relation could be anywhere from a third cousin to very distant.  She is adopted and without a tree.  The shared segment is on an unassigned area of my father's genome, meaning that the ancestral source is unknown for this piece of my father's DNA.

Recently a closer match appeared for her with shared DNA in the second to fourth cousin range.  All three people- my father, the DNA cousin, and her new close match- all match one another on this original small segment.  This new DNA match has a robust family tree with roots in New Jersey.

The idea is that if the connection between my father and this new DNA match can be identified, then the adopted DNA cousin will have a narrow branch to work with for her connection to us.

Spoiler alert:  This mystery has not been solved (yet).

In viewing this other person's family tree, the surname Sayre popped out.  My father's third great grandparents were Reuben Bishop (1805-1856) and Susan.  Reuben died in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey.  Susan remarried to Enos Littel Whitehead (1804 - 1880) in 1860, a few months after the federal census.

A death certificate for Susan Whitehead, died September 9, 1890 in Plainfield, Union County, New Jersey, provided her parents as Abner or Asher Ayers and Sarah.  No marriage record was located for Susan Ayers to Reuben Bishop.  After seeing Sayre in the family tree of the DNA cousin, I thought that maybe the name could be Sayre, not Ayers, and reviewed Susan.

Reviewing the records on Susan, I realized that I had no other records revealing her full name.  Her marriage record to Enos L Whitehead in Newark on September 7, 1860 did not include the names of the parents for the bride or groom.

Enos Littel Whitehead died February 2, 1880 in Newark, right before the 1880 census.

The obituary for the Susan Whitehead who died in 1890 gave her husband's name as Frazee Whitehead.  I was not too concerned.  Next to this obituary was an advertisement for Marsh and Ayers.  Susan's son, William Reuben Bishop, married Susan Jane Marsh.  Clearly the right path, yes?

No.  In seeking Susan and Enos Whitehead in the 1870 census, I found Susan and Frazee Whitehead.  Maybe Enos used the name Frazee?  Expanding the search into other census years produced a couple named Susan and Frazee Whitehead, who lived for decades in Plainfield, not Morristown or Newark.

So the death certificate for Susan Whitehead, died 1890 in Plainfield, was for Susan Ayers, wife of Frazee Whitehead, and not for my Susan, wife of Reuben Bishop and Enos Whitehead.

A visit to Evergreen Cemetery in Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey produced the record of the plot of Enos Whitehead.  No Susan.

Buried in Evergreen Cemetery are Susan and Reuben Bishop's son, William Reuben Bishop (1843-1915), William's wife, Susan Jane Marsh (1848-1932), and Susan's parents, Eliakim Marsh (1816-1881) and Susan Long (1819-1882).  Somehow I noticed Eliakim's worn stone.  He is buried near Enos Whitehead.  I could not find a marker for Enos on this trip.

So what happened to my Susan and who were her parents?  I made a list of all her children to locate their marriage and death records in the New Jersey State Archives in hopes that Susan's name was included in one of these records.


In the meantime, I googled Susan and Enos.  I found a blurb about Susan C Bishop in the History of the First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, New Jersey.  A third husband was named:  E P DeGroot.

Mary Jane Bishop (born about 1836 in New Jersey) was a daughter of Susan C Bell and Reuben Bishop.

The online marriage index at FamilySearch.org listed a marriage between Edward P DeGroot and Susan C Bell on February 14, 1880 in Newark.  Enos died February 2, 1880, making Susan eligible to remarry, though the year could have been 1881 because this index can be off by one year.

The record is housed at the New Jersey State Archives.  Susan C Bell married Edward P Degroot on February 14, 1881 (not 1880) in Newark.  Susan's parents were listed as John Bell and Jane Bockover.

Using the name Susan DeGroot, a death certificate was located.  Susan died March 1, 1888 in Newark.  Burial was at Fairmount Cemetery in Newark.  Note that the names of her parents are not on the death record.  If she had not remarried in 1881, the names of her parents may not have ever been known.

Susan's estate was probated in Morris County, New Jersey, which is not online at FamilySearch.org like the other twenty counties.  A trip to the courthouse provided documentation that Susan DeGroot was the mother of the Bishop children:

1- William R[euben] Bishop
2- Mary (wife of Edward Skinner)
3- Emma (wife of Silas Totten)
4- Julia (wife of George Ward)
5- George Bishop

A trip Fairmount Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey provided Susan's burial records.  She was buried in the plot of her daughter, Julia Bishop(1842-1902), wife of George Ward (1837-1889) and later William Condon.  The plot was purchased in 1866 for the burial of Ida C Ward (1859-1866), the six year old daughter of Julia Bishop and George Ward.

Susan has no marker.  There are stones for eight of the fourteen people buried in this plot.

Susan Bell's ancestral branch can be expanded with the revelation of her parents' names.  This may or may not be the branch in common with the DNA cousins, but each possibility must be explored.

Step Third Cousins

Is there such a thing as a step third cousin?  Well, I found one.  Her great great grandmother was married to my great great grandfather.  We both descend from previous marriages.

My great great grandfather, Herman Lutter, remarried to a woman named Emma.  This was discovered when viewing the 1920 census.

1920 United States Federal Census
58 Hunter Street, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
Ancestry.com

Herman was “single” in the 1910 census.  A search of New Jersey marriage records from 1910 through 1920 produced a marriage certificate in 1915 of Herman Lutter to Emma Neubauer, widow of Grieser.

Marriage record
Herman Lutter to Emma Neubauer
March 2, 1915 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
Via microfilm at New Jersey State Archives

This marriage was also an unhappy one for Herman.  He filed for divorce from Emma in 1923 and relocated to Spring Lake in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Red Bank Register online
Monmouth County, New Jersey

 

Neubauer was not an unfamiliar name in my research of Herman Lutter.  Lutter v. Neubauer (100 N.J.L. 17; 125 A. 113) was a precedent-setting legal case in mental health decided June 17, 1924.  Herman Lutter sued Albert Neubauer for room and board and won by default.  Rose Seipel, administratrix of Albert’s estate, appealed and won.  Herman appealed and lost.  The Court held, “[A]lthough an insane person may be sued at law for an alleged debt, his incapacity requires that he be protected . . .”  I thought it was strange that someone owed Herman for room and board when Herman himself was always renting a room.

1917 City Directory for Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
Fold3.com
Note that Herman Lutter was rooming at 58 Hunter.
In the 1920 census, he was still renting at this address.

 

Herman died weeks after the court's decision on July 3, 1924, before his divorce to Emma was complete.  Herman’s death certificate listed Fairmount Cemetery in Newark as the burial place.  Research of this cemetery’s records failed to locate any records of Herman’s burial.  I searched at the New Jersey State Archives through the 1930s for a death certificate for Emma, but found none.

Then I remembered that the court’s opinion contained the date of death of the defendant, Albert Neubauer:  October 13, 1921 at the Newark City Almshouse.  With a date, the death certificate was easy to locate at the Archives.

Via microfilm at New Jersey State Archives

 

Albert was buried at Fairmount Cemetery, where Herman was supposed to be buried.  Returning to Fairmount, I located Albert’s record.  Burials are not organized in strict alphabetical order, but rather in chronological order based on the first few letters of the surname.  Having a date of death ensures a more accurate search.  Albert was buried October 15, 1921 in Section L, Lot 51. 

Fairmount Cemetery
Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
Burial log for surname Ne* 1916-1936

Looking up the plot card, we find that the owner was Schmidt.  Without knowing this surname, we needed the date of death of someone else in the plot to locate the record.  Emma Lutter was buried in this plot on December 18, 1946.  This is why I did not locate her death certificate- I had not looked in the 1940s- yet.  Louis Grieser was buried in this plot on February 1, 1906.  No gravestones are in this location.

Fairmount Cemetery
Plot card for Section L, Lot 51

 

Using these dates of death, I looked for these people online in hopes of ascertaining their relationships.  A great great granddaughter of Emma had posted the tree online with photographs!  Emma, Albert, and Rose were siblings.  Louis was Emma’s first husband.

Neubauer siblings
Emma married Herman Lutter.
Rose married Henry Seipel.
Herman Lutter sued Albert Neubauer and Rose appealed the case.

 

The Neubauer family does not have any pictures of Herman Lutter.  I  would not blame Emma if she tore them up.  I am glad that I clarified the relationships of these people and can associate faces with the names.