Children of John Lutter and Rhoda Gant

John F. E. Luther (1854-1915) and Rhoda A Gant (1858-1923) married March 1, 1876 in Newark, Essex County New Jersey. He was 22 years old. She was 18. His occupation was carpenter.

John F E Luther and Rhoda A Gant
married March 1, 1876 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.
Volume BP, Marriages, Atlantic through Hudson Counties, 1875-1876, viewable at Ancestry

John's parents were Ernst Lutter and Margaret Alfke. They married in 1851 in Newark. Ernst was likely the earliest Lutter to arrive in Newark.

Johann Christian Ernss Lutter and Anna Margaretha Alfken married March 23, 1851
in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.
This marriage was recorded at the county level, not state.
New Jersey, County Marriages, 1682-1956, viewable at FamilySearch.org.

John died May 30, 1915 in Secaucus, Hudson County New Jersey at the Hudson County Hospital for the Insane. Cause of death was cerebral apoplexy. Parents "unknown." Burial was at New York Bay Cemetery in Jersey City.

Rhoda died December 16, 1923 in Bayonne, Hudson County. Cause of death was chronic endocarditis. Burial was also at New York Bay Cemetery.

John and Rhoda had at least nine children. Five lived into adulthood.

NAME	DATE OF BIRTH	DATE OF DEATH
Lucy	Feb 15, 1877	June 11, 1939
Rhoda Ann	Feb 1879	Sep 10, 1941
Catherine Perkins	Mar 3, 1880	Nov 23, 1880
Antoinette	Sep 1881	Mar 10, 1886
John Ernest	Apr 1884	Dec 6, 1944
Margaret	May 1885	Jan 20, 1959
Charlotte Nathanie	1888	Dec 23, 1934
Ruth	Nov 24, 1890	Aug 24, 1894
Winefred	Sep 8, 1893	Sep 8, 1893

The links are to their pages on Find A Grave.

I located birth records for three of these nine children. Only Ruth was named at birth.

Child Number 1

Lucy was the first child of John and Rhoda. She was born February 15, 1877 in Newark. Births at this time were recorded in ledger books. Lucy's entry does not name her and mislabeled her as male.

Male child born to John and Rose Luther
February 15, 18777 in Newark.
Volume CM, Births Atlantic through Hudson Counties, 1866-1877, viewable at Ancestry

In 1912, Lucy married Martin Lang (1848-1933), widower of Anna Petrany. His children were from this earlier marriage and not from Lucy. Lucy died in 1939 and was buried in Woodland Cemetery in Newark.

Child Number 2

Rhoda Ann was born in February of 1879. No record of birth was found.

She was married twice. In 1899 she married Frank Clarkson in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey. After Frank's death, Rhoda remarried to Alexander J Cross in 1909 in Bayonne. Her children were delineated in a previous article.

Child Number 3

Catherine Perkins was born March 3, 1880 in Newark at 65 Fairview Avenue. She has a birth certificate, but was not named on this document. The midwife was Mary Staehle of 20 Belmont Avenue. She was the third child according to this birth certificate. 

Female Lutter born to John Lutter and Rodi Gerndt
March 3, 1880 in Newark.
Copied from microfilm at New Jersey State Archives.

We know Catherine's full name from her death certificate. On November 23, 1880 Catherine Perkins Lutter died from croup at 63 Fairview Avenue. She was buried in Woodland Cemetery, Newark.

Catherine Perkins Lutter
died November 23, 1880 in Newark.
Death certificate copied from microfilm at New Jersey State Archives.

When Catherine died, John and Rhoda were left with two children.

Child Number 4

Antoinette was born around September of 1881. No birth certificate was located.

She died March 10, 1886 in Newark at the age of four years and six months from acute bronchial pulmonary edema. She was buried in Woodland Cemetery, Newark.

Antoinette Lutter died March 10, 1886 in Newark.
Age four years, six months.
Copied from microfilm at New Jersey State Archives.

Child Number 5

John Ernest was born around April 1884. No birth certificate was located.

In 1905 in Bayonne John married Annie Mary Emma Otto (1885-1964). They had four children.

John died in 1944 in Staten Island, Richmond County, New York.

Child Number 6

Margaret was born around May 1885. No birth certificate was located.

In 1911 in Bayonne Margaret married Frank Schreiner. They had one son, Raymond.

Margaret died in 1959 in Jersey City.

Child Number 7

Charlotte Nathanie was born around 1888. No birth certificate was located.

In 1907 in Bayonne Charlotte married William Gerhard Kontje. They had at least six children.

Charlotte died in 1934 in Bayonne. 

Child Number 8

Ruth was born November 24, 1890 in Newark at 664 South 12th Street. She received a birth certificate. On this document, she was child number 8 with 6 still living. This tracks with what I found up to 1890. The midwife was Wilhelmine Belz of 122 Morton Street.

Ruth Lutter born November 24, 1890 in Newark.
Copied from microfilm at New Jersey State Archives.

Ruth died August 24, 1894 at 454 Bergen Street in Newark. She was aged three years, nine months, and 26 days. The cause of death was convulsions. She was buried in Woodland Cemetery.

Ruth Lutter died August 24, 1894 in Newark.
Age three years, zero months, and 26 days.
Copied from microfilm at New Jersey State Archives.

Child Number 9

Winefred was the final child found for John and Rhoda. She has no birth certificate; instead, she received only a death certificate for September 8, 1893- age fourteen hours. The cause of death was atelectasis pulm; probably premature birth with insufficient lung functioning. She was buried at Woodland Cemetery.

Winefred Lutter died September 8, 1893 in Newark.
Age fourteen hours.
Copied from microfilm at New Jersey State Archives.

How does one find these birth records in New Jersey?

There are indexes.

Where are these indexes? They are in the Archives and online at FamilySearch and Ancestry. (Currently not on the website of the New Jersey State Archives.)

Physically there are books in the Archives in Trenton, New Jersey.

Books of indexes at New Jersey State Archives

There are three sets of books to cover three different periods:

1848-1878

1878-1890

1890-1900

(There are additional indexes for 1901, 1902, 1903, and 1901-1929. These Lutter children were born before that time, so I will not delve in to those years here.)

These bound books are copies of typed indexes. I do not know who created them, when, or how. Maybe someone could chime in with a helpful comment.

Copy of paper index of births 1848-1878
available at the New Jersey State Archives.
This entry is actually for a female child who became known as Lucy.

Entries in the index for 1848-1878 refer to ledger books. No individual certificates exist. The first child, Lucy, a female, was born February 15, 1877 in Newark. An official record of her birth was made with the City of Newark. This record eventually made its way into a ledger book stored at the state level.

Entry at FamilySearch for male child born to John Luther and Rose Luther
in Newark on February 15, 1877

This same entry at FamilySearch lists the full date of birth and names of parents, but the image is not viewable at home. I had to travel to a Family History Center to look at the image. It was the image that I copied from the book in the Archives. Again, this is not the birth ledger, but rather the index.

Underlying image linked to the index at FamilySearch for male child born to John Luther and Rose Luther in 1877 in Newark

Note that this index lists the father's first initial, J, and does not list the mother. Yet the entry at FamilySearch spells out John's full first name and gives the first name of the mother.

Ancestry's entry is a bit different. The full date is missing; however, the image is viewable. The image is not the index, as on FamilySearch, but rather the actual birth ledger.

Search result at Ancestry for male child born to John Luther and Rose Luther in 1877 in Newark.

The underlying image is viewable.
This is the actual birth ledger book, same as the microfilm in the New Jersey State Archives.

Microfilm at the New Jersey State Archives

In 1878, New Jersey shifted from entries in a ledger book to individual certificates. Below is the entry in the index for Catherine Lutter, not named at birth, born March 3, 1880.

Copy of paper index of births 1878-1890
available at the New Jersey State Archives

The index at Ancestry has issues. I suspect that this index was not derived from the books in the Archives nor from the actual certificates. A film number is provided.

Entry at Ancestry for Lutter birth 1880 in Newark.
A film number is provided. FamilySearch describes this film as births 1879-1880.

This film is not viewable at home, but is viewable through the FamilySearch website at a Family History Center. This film does NOT contain birth certificates; rather, it is a handwritten index of births.

Image linked to index at Ancestry for Lutter birth March 3, 1879

At the top of this page is "Index Register of Births in Newark, Essex County, 1879-1880." Pages must be flipped to find the start of births in the middle of 1879. Thus the dates on this page are for the year 1880, not 1879.

FamilySearch indexed the correct year.

Entry for Lutter birth March 3, 1880 at FamilySearch. This is the correct year.

Users can request a correction to the date of birth in Ancestry's index, but please do not do this until the date is confirmed on the actual record (not another index).

Nurse Julia Flanagan 1857-1935

Cabinet card of a young woman by Sterry

This cabinet card is a picture of a woman, standing, dressed in clothing typically worn by nurses in the late 1800s. The photographer was Sterry and Company of 520 and 522 Broadway in Albany, New York. In blue ink is written "Julia C Flanagan 1888."

Backside of cabinet card of young woman by Sterry, Albany, New York

This card resides in New Jersey, not Albany, so the search for Julia had to span both places.

The Newark Sunday Call, a newspaper in New Jersey, detailed "The First Graduates of the Training School at the Asylum" in an article dated June 17, 1888. By this time, formal training of nurses as well as changes in the treatment of the mentally ill were creating educational and vocational opportunities. Julia and Agnes Flanagan were mentioned.

Newspaper article about graduates of the nursing school
of the Essex County Asylum, 1888

The training program at the Essex County Asylum lasted two years. Students were paid. Men earned $20 per month and women earned $14 per month. To earn $20, a woman had to complete the entire two year course successfully.

Note: The Essex County Asylum still exists, but is now called Essex County Hospital and is located in Cedar Grove, not Newark.

The Journal of Insanity
Volume 45
View here

The Journal of Insanity also reported on these graduates in October of 1888, though the author was not pleased with nurses receiving training and accolades. "By all means let nurses be trained, but let us not forget the wholesome maxim, Ne sutor ultra credpidam." Julia and Agnes Flanagan were noted for demonstrating their knowledge.

Note: The American Journal of Insanity began publication in 1844. It is still in publication, but under the name American Journal of Psychiatry, which changed in 1921.

1870 United States federal census
Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey
Julia Flanigan, age 11. At school.

Julia Flanagan and Margaret Agnes Flanagan were daughters of John Flanagan (1829-1889) and Ann Cahill (1829-1896). In the 1870 census, the family resided in Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey.

1900 United States federal census
Albany, Albany County, New York
Julia C Flannigan, age 37, nurse. Boarder.

Julia relocated to Albany, where she worked as a nurse.

Obituary of Julia C Flanagan, died January 7, 1935.

Julia has two memorial pages on Find A Grave. She is mentioned on the family stone in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Find A Grave memorial page for Julia C Flanagan
at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey.

Julia was buried in Saint Agnes Cemetery in Menands, New York. 

Find A Grave memorial page for Julia C Flanagan
at Saint Agnes Cemetery in Menands, Albany County, New York.

Julia's birthdate is engraved on both stones- September 25, 1858. The memorial in Bloomfield has a note: "born 9/24/1858 on tombstone (incorrect year)".

Neither is correct, according to the birth ledger filed with the state, which is a primary source. On September 24, 1857 an unnamed baby girl was born to John and Ann Flanagan in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Register of births in New Jersey. Book I 1848-1867

Margaret Agnes married Frederick Van Houten  (1864-1922). She may have spent her years working for her family in the home, rather than being employed outside the home as a nurse.

The memorial page for Margaret Agnes Flanagan (1861-1934) originally linked to the wrong husband. Frederick VanHouten (1864-1922), buried in Woodland Cemetery in Newark, is the correct husband for Margaret. Frederick VanHouten (1866-1943), buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark, was not Margaret's husband.

Julia, a daughter of Margaret and Frederick, died in 1928 in Saranac Lake, Franklin County, New York. A copy of this death certificate was filed in New Jersey. This is unusual but sometimes happens. If someone resided in New Jersey but died in another state, it is possible that a record exists in New Jersey as well as the location of the death. This is worth a try, especially with the State of New York, since genealogy requests for records have stopped being filled.

New York death certificate filed in New Jersey.
Julia VanHouten died June 4, 1928 in Saranac Lake, Franklin County, New York.

New Jersey Vital Records Online 1848-1878

This is wonderful news.

New Jersey's earliest state-level vital records are online at Ancestry!

The covered years are 1848-1878. There are no individual certificates in this time period; rather, births, marriages, and deaths were recorded in ledger books. The information varies, but can include the person's name, date of birth or age, names of parents, places of birth, marriage, and/or death, residence, and more.

Previously, these records were only available at the Archives in Trenton and, within the last few years, at a FamilySearch Center (not from your house).

The ledger books are "organized" by county, year, and event. Use the guide below to find the correct book.

Paper I copied at the Archives a long time ago

Remember to look in the correct county. Places currently in Union County were a part of Essex County until Union County was created in 1857.

Until 1857, Plainfield was in Essex County.
You need to look in records of Essex County to find what is now called Union County.
And that is how "Essex" looked. Double S.

The microfilm rolls at the Archives:

This image captured the spine of the book.
I have never seen the original books. Do they still exist?

The microfilm is viewable on the reader in the background.
Flashback to the 1960s.

Below is a page viewed at a FamilySearch Center. Alfred Dunlop (1831-1892) married Mary Bedle (1840-1927) on December 20, 1865 in Matawan, Monmouth County. He was my third great granduncle. They moved from New Jersey to Indiana and had three children, but no grandchildren.

Citation and blue markings added by author.

I don't know how Ancestry or FamilySearch comes by their images. The quality varies.

Same page at Ancestry

I didn't find all the images at Ancestry. For example, my great great grandfather, Charles Cook (died 1937) was born in Denville, Morris County on June 11, 1858. This was recorded in Book Z2, Births in Morris County, 1848-1867. I found no match in the searchable index and the book did not appear in any menu for browsing. Below is the image photographed on the microfilm reader at the Archives.

Typing added by author

The State Archives has already indexed this collection on their website. It is more precise than the index currently available at Ancestry.

Search page on the State Archive's website.
The exact URLs change over time, so Google for the current link.
Try "New Jersey State Archives Searchable Databases."

For example, a search of the State's index produces specific and accurate results for David Uhl, died October 3, 1867 in Newark. He was a baby of my third great grandparents, David Uhl (1834-1884) and Clara Patschke (1840-1914).

Ancestry's index, in contrast, omits distinguishing details, such as age, location, and date.

The image of the page in the ledger book is below. The month is written once; hence, the indexer only wrote the day. The year is inferred by the range of dates at the top of the page. In this instant, the dates are from June 1 of 1867 through June 1 of 1868. Because this event was in October, the year was 1867. All events were in Newark, but the indexer did not include location, perhaps because "place of death" was blank on each line.

Benjamin Marsh (1797-1867) was a son of my sixth great grandparents, Charles Marsh (1755-1833) and Abigail Denman or Faitoute (1756-1821). (That will be a post for another day.) Benjamin died in Newark on April 8, 1867 and was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. His entry in ledger book N "Deaths in Newark City 1848-1867" is below.

The State's online index tells us exactly where to find Benjamin's entry.

Ancestry's index is wonky. I did not think this could be him, but no other entries looked like him either. His gender, age (off by 44 years), date (missing year), and residence (name of parents of someone else) were all transcribed wrong.

I would anticipate (hope?) that Ancestry will clean up their index. If linking to such a record through your family tree software, you would need to discard the erroneous information. It would be a good idea to go to the page and download it for your files, in case something happens to this collection. Yes, folks, this can happen.

Around May of 1878, the State began creating individual certificates for births, marriages, and deaths. That is why this collection is only from the start of state registration in 1848 through the middle of 1878. If your event is on the cusp, search both the ledger books and the individual certificates.

Secondary Sources

I finally tracked down the death certificate of Charles Cook, my great great grandfather.  He was a resident of Newark, Essex County, New Jersey when he died December 6, 1937.  I looked at the death certificates year after year until I found the correct one.  This is sometimes what has to be done if the date cannot be obtained from another record.

Unlike the death certificate of his father, Charles' death record provided the name of the cemetery where he was buried, Locust Hill in Dover, Morris County, New Jersey.  His father's record provided only the town of burial.  I made several trips, inquiries, and searches until I found the relevant Cook grave in Dover.

Cook family plot at Locust Hill Cemetery in Dover, Morris County, New Jersey.
Charles Cook (1859-1937) does not have a marker.

When you look at a record, it is important to keep in mind which pieces of information are primary versus secondary.  The date of death and location are primary, as the facts were recorded at the time of the event.  The date and place of birth and names of spouse and parents are secondary sources.

Charles' date of birth is quite specific on his death record:  October 22, 1857.  Unlike most people born in the 1850s, Charles' birth in Denville, Morris County, New Jersey was recorded at the state level.  Charles was born June 11, 1859.  The birth record is a primary source for Charles' birthdate.

The 1860 federal census gives Charles Cook's age as 1 year.  This is consistent with a birth in 1859.  Ages skew in later census years.

The names of Charles Cook's parents are not consistent with other records.  His father was Calvin Cook (1826-1889), not William.  His mother was Mary Neil (1830-1898) or O'Neil, not Caroline.  Charles' wife was Minnie Caroline Bishop (1866-1910).

As you gather documents, evaluate if you are looking at primary or secondary sources.  Remember, though, that primary is not synonymous with absolute truth.