Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

March 18 is the birthday of my paternal grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980).

He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1915. He was born outside of Newark, New Jersey because, as the story goes, his father, a musician, was performing in Philadelphia.

He came of age during the Great Depression. He worked a variety of jobs, but the stories center around his two passions: photography and police work.

His photographs are of unnamed models. As the years pass, so do people who might recognize the subjects. Please view them here to possibly help identify any of these people.

Below is a previously unpublished photograph of Clifford as a young man. He is on the right, standing inside the tree. I do not know who the other person is. The location is likely in Holmdel, Monmouth County, New Jersey- the home of this maternal grandparents, William Walling Winterton (1863-1932) and Catherine Butterfoss Dunn (1865-1944).

A rare photograph of a smiling Clifford Lutter (standing inside tree)

Happy Birthday Grandpa

March 18 is the birthday of my paternal grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980).

Birth certificate of Clifford Lutter.
March 18, 1915 in Philadelphia.
Father- Howard Lutter. Mother- Laura Ethel Winterton.

Clifford was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1915. The story surrounding his birth was that his father, musician Howard Lutter (1889-1959), was performing in Philadelphia. Otherwise, the family resided in Newark, New Jersey.

On the anniversary of his birth, I am posting some newly discovered photographs of him. I had these photos for years from various sources, but I did not realize that he was the young person in these photos. I suspect they were taken in Holmdel, Monmouth County, New Jersey at the residence of his maternal grandparents, William Walling Winterton (1863-1932) and Catherine Butterfoss Dunn (1865-1944).

This could be a picture of Clifford Lutter with his sister, Beryl.
Beryl was born in 1918.

Five-Generation Places of Birth Family Tree

Thanks to J Paul Hawthorne at Geneaspy for this idea of a family tree focused on places of birth.

At a glance, you can visualize by color the locations where your ancestors were born.  This reveals migratory patterns and where records can be found.

My father's tree has one outlier:  my paternal grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980), was born in Pennsylvania.  This was because his father, Howard Lutter (1889-1959), a musician, was performing in Philadelphia at this time.  Their usual residence was Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.

My mother's tree is more challenging.  By the time we go five generations back, we are not in the United States.  I listed her paternal grandparents as born in Slovakia.  The area of origin is within the current borders of the country of Slovakia.  They were from central Europe where governmental control and political borders changed often.  They spoke German.

Previous ideas for focused family trees were:

Causes of Death

Cemeteries

You can use this type of family tree format for any feature you would like to showcase, such as number of children or place of death.

Welcoming Irish Relatives

A Brady cousin has been found!  She came forward after discovering the match through DNA and then checking family trees.  H.M. and R.S. are third cousins.  The common ancestors are their second great grandparents, Patrick Brady and Eliza Duffy (1837-1918).

[R.S. is my father's third cousin, but through different ancestors, Calvin Cook (1826-1889) and Mary Neil (1830-1898).  R.S. is also my mother's cousin.  We do not know which ancestors they have in common.  Testing my mother's close cousins narrowed down the possibilities to the O'Donnell/Joyce branch in my mother's tree.  R.S.'s match with my mother will be in one of his Irish branches.  I was concentrating on Brady/Duffy.  We'll look at those DNA comparisons in future posts.]

Part One:  DNA
Although the DNA tests were done at different companies (23andMe and AncestryDNA), both were uploaded (for free) to GedMatch.com, which is where the connection was discovered.  (You can do this too!)

These third cousins share two segments of DNA.  They share less DNA than R.S. shares with my father and his siblings, even though they all have the same degree of relation.  This is because the amount of DNA shared among close relatives skews beyond the initial parent-child relationship.  At the third cousin level, you begin to see no shared DNA.


Part Two:  Research
The common ancestors of R.S. and H.M. are their second great grandparents, Patrick Brady and Eliza Duffy (1837 Ireland -1918 Jersey City, New Jersey USA).  R.S. descends from their daughter, Mary.  H.M. descends from their son, Bernard.

I have no dates for Patrick Brady because I have no records for him.  Brady and Duffy are common Irish surnames and there is no shortage of people with these names in New York City and Jersey City, the target areas of my search.

Eliza used "Eliza" and "Elizabeth," but Eliza is more uncommon and therefore easier to work with.  I was able to locate her obituary from 1918 in the Jersey Journal, which lead me to her death certificate and burial (Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City).  Eliza's death certificate provided the names of her parents as Peter Duffy and Elizabeth Connors of "Ireland."  (Later in 1942, daughter Mary's death certificate provided the name of the county in Ireland- Meath.  Further research will find more precise locations.)

Jersey Journal
online at GenealogyBank.com

Death Certificate for Eliza Duffy, wife of Patrick Brady, died in Jersey City in 1918.
Available on microfilm in Trenton, New Jersey

Online burial index for Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City, New Jersey
rcancem.org (free genealogy search)
Good luck finding a grave

Burial site of Eliza Duffy, 1918
No stone.  In between Cherry and Pucciarelli.
F - K - 108.

Because this cemetery is so confusing, I also checked out K - F - 108.  Constantinople.
The grass was greener on this side, but I don't think this is where Duffy or Brady is buried.

My strategy for reconstructing this family was to gather all of the children and follow them.  This is not easy in Irish families because they gravitated towards the same Irish names.  I came up with seven children for Patrick Brady and Eliza Duffy, all born in Ireland approximately between 1850 and 1871:

--- Bernard (great grandfather of H.M.),
--- Catherine,
--- Peter,
--- Ann,
--- Mary (great grandmother of R.S.),
--- Patrick,
--- Joseph.

Figuring out the oldest child and youngest child is important for creating a timeline: when the couple married, when the father died, when the family immigrated to the United States.

Bernard appears to have been the oldest sibling.  His descendants provided details of his life.  Bernard married Mary Dineen.  In 1885, their first child, Lizzie, was born in New York City at 746 Greenwich Street.  Bernard later appears in the New York City directories at this address.  A marriage record for Bernard Brady and Mary Dineen has not yet been located.

Without an address, the correct Bernard Brady is indistinguishable from the other 21 men named Bernard Brady.

Searching for Bernard's father, Patrick Brady, in New York City is no easy task.  Look at how many men are named Patrick Brady.

At some point in the 1880s, the family lived in Jersey City.  Catherine Brady married David Francis Cleary in Jersey City in 1888.  Ann Brady married Samuel Lynn in Jersey City in 1890.  These marriage records are clearly the correct Brady family.  Where were they before 1888?

The 1885 New Jersey State census is indexed at FamilySearch.  I located a possible entry for this Brady family in Jersey City.

This entry is for Eliza and her seven children.  Barney, or Bernard, is out of birth order.

Never one to rely on an index, I found the microfilm at the Jersey City Public Library.

1885 New Jersey State Census
Jersey City, Hudson County.  District 4.  Precinct 6.  Page 207.

The numbers to locate this entry were accurate; this is page 207, family 1219, in District 4.  The only issue was that there are several precincts in the district.  This is Precinct 6.  Street addresses are not given.

Once I had the family in Jersey City in 1885, I turned to the city directories for earlier years.  (The New Jersey Room of the main branch of the Jersey City Public Library has a fairly complete set.  The Newark Public Library also has several years.)  The earliest that I can definitely identify this family in Jersey City is in the 1883-1884 directory.  Eliza is listed as Patrick's widow at 111 Cottage.

At this point, we can say that the family came to the United States sometime after the birth of the last child in Ireland, around 1871, and before 1883, when Eliza is listed as Patrick's widow in the city directory.

For further research:
--- Did Patrick Brady come to the United States with his wife and children, or did he die in Ireland?
--- Did the family live in New York City before settling in Jersey City in the early 1880s?  Were they in the United States for the 1880 federal census?  (I have not found a good match for them in 1880.)
--- Where was Bernard Brady's wife, Mary Dineen, living before the marriage?  Where is the marriage record?

Fast-forwarding to the 1895 New Jersey State Census, Eliza is living with only one child, Joseph Brady (died 1911).  Also living with them are two women with the surname Duffy:  Annie and Mamie.  These are potential relatives of Eliza who also need to be tracked down.

Personalized Maps

Inspired by a genealogical blog post, I crafted some ancestor maps of my own.  Using the ancestors of my father, I created two maps:  1- Place of Birth and 2- Place of Death.

2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great grandparents
16 great great grandparents
Total:  30 ancestors

The outlier in the birthplaces is my grandfather, Clifford Lutter.  He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1915.  All of his other events are in New Jersey.  A family story explains that Clifford was born in Philadelphia because his father was performing there at the time.

These maps show where to find the bulk of my recent family records.  The three unknown places of death are likely New Jersey and Germany.

Delayed Birth Certificates

New Jersey has an interesting collection of Delayed Births 1848-1900 at the Archives.  Because everyone did not record a birth with the local registrar, and this birth may or may not have been recorded at the state level, some people had to request that a birth certificate be created- years after the event.  The accuracy of a record made years later is suspect.  These applications for a delayed birth certificate required information and documentation not required for the original birth certificate.  You can use the information to locate additional records.

Delayed birth certificate for Henry Bossett, born in Newark, New Jersey on February 3, 1896.

This is a birth certificate created years later; in this situation, 46 years later.  The helpful information contains an address at the time of birth as well as full names of the baby and parents.  We get a signature of the father as he attests that the birth occurred at the specified date and place, as well as his current address.

But that's not all.  The applications for the delayed birth certificate are also filmed.

Application of Henry Bossett to issue a delayed birth certificate

The application asks for:
--Date and place of marriage of parents.
--Names, dates, and places of birth for other children of this union.  (Some forms ask only for children born earlier than the person now requesting a birth certificate.)
--Name, date, and place of marriage of the applicant.
--Street address used in the 1905 and 1915 New Jersey state census!

While this information is great, you need to consider the information provided in light of other records.  By the 1940s, when this record was created, this family was spelling their last name with two Ts:  Bossett.  In 1896, the spelling was Bossert or Bosset.

One other sibling, Mary, is listed on the application.  This couple had three children, the first born in 1894.  The omission of this first sibling perhaps indicates that the surviving children did not know about this first child.

Delayed birth certificate for George Cowenhoven Duryee, born in Hudson County October 23, 1899

George Cowenhoven Duryee attested to his own birth.  Documentation, which is not on the microfilm, was a baptismal certificate from a church.  You can use this information to possibly locate church records for this family.  (Several members of this branch are buried at the cemetery for this church.)  We get the full names and towns of birth of the parents.

Application of George Cowenhoven Duryee for a delayed birth certificate

The application for the delayed birth certificate shows us that this family's records lie in both New Jersey and New York.

I would also like to point out some of these place names.  Union Hill existed in 1894, but along with West Hoboken, had become Union City before this record was created in 1943.  These locations are in Hudson County, not Union County.  North Bergen is in Hudson County, not Bergen County.  "Town of Union" in Hudson County is where we can go astray.  By 1899, this town had been broken up and morphed into other other towns, some of which were later annexed into other towns and/or changed names.  Hudson Heights is currently a neighborhood of North Bergen.  So most of these locations are challenging to pinpoint given the border changes, name changes, and non-contemporaneous record making.



Next for review is the delayed birth certificate for someone who already had a birth certificate.

This is the birth certificate of Anna Augusta "Gussie" Lutter made at the time of her birth in Newark on April 29, 1892.

Yet Augusta filed for a delayed birth certificate.

Delayed birth certificate for Anna Augusta Luther, 1892

It looks like Augusta thought she was born in Harrison in Hudson County on April 30, 1892.  She had the wrong city and county and was off by one day.  In addition, she was spelling the surname as "Luther," which was a spelling used by the family, but Augusta's original birth certificate appeared in the index as "Lutter."  We would know to look under both spellings, but without a first name at birth, Augusta may have been told that her original birth certificate did not exist.

Index to New Jersey births, 1890-1900
Available at New Jersey State Archives and FamilySearch.org (microfilm)

Birth records

Birth announcements in old newspapers are rare.  I find far more marriage and death notices than birth.

This "young" baby is probably Walter Preston, son of John D Preston and Bridget Sheehey.  The family relocated from Dutchess County, New York to Warren and then Hudson Counties, New Jersey around 1900.  The exact birth location of their children helps in locating records.

This family is enumerated in the 1900 federal census in Independence, Warren County, New Jersey.  Walter's birth is listed as August 1899 in New York.

1900 United States Federal Census
Independence Township, Warren County, New Jersey
ED 190, page 7B, lines 71-82
Ancestry.com

Obtaining an Alien File

Last week I wrote of my visit to the National Archives in New York City and the instruction I received on Alien Files.  I located an individual of interest in the online index and requested a copy of the file last Tuesday evening.  On Wednesday, the NARA office in Kansas City, Missouri contacted me with additional information from the file, including a place of birth and date and port of entry to the United States, to verify that they had the correct file.  (This information did not actually verify anything; rather, it was such facts that I was hoping to discover.  This verification would be useful, though, for common names.)  For just $15, one week later I had in my mailbox the copies of the file.  The contents of this particular file were the two pages comprising the Alien Registration Form filed in 1940.  Other files may contain a lot more documents and information, but I still received a wealth of information from these two pages, including:

-Date and place of birth
-Entry date into the United States
-Ship name
-Physical description and marital status
-Current address
-Occupation and name and address of employer
-Signature

Alien Registration Form filed 1940 for Joseph Regenye.
Part of his Alien File available through the National Archives.

Page 2 of the Alien Registration Form.

Visit to the National Archives

Yesterday I visited the National Archives in New York City at 201 Varick Street.  (They plan to relocate this year.)  The tour was sponsored by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.  The National Archives' main genealogical holdings include federal census records, naturalization records, and military records.  You can view census records at home now, so you may find the repository more useful for the naturalization records and military records.  The presentation focused on Alien Files, or A-Files.  Such a file was created for an immigrant, or alien, who was not naturalized as of April 1, 1944.  Individuals who were born before 1909 and who have A-Files are indexed online.  I have few recent immigrants in my family trees, but I managed to find a match in their online index to show you an example.  After locating someone in the index, you can then order the Alien File from the Kansas City office.  Locating an individual in the online index can provide you with a date of birth and location, as well as other names used.  The file itself may contain information such as parentage and copies of original documents, perhaps birth certificates and marriage records.

Only result for "Regenye" from the online Archival Research Catalog of the National Archives.
You can use the "Scope & Content" tab to possibly identify if the entry matches your person of interest.
If you think there is a match, go ahead and order the A-File.

Over at Ancestry.com, a check for Joseph Regenye provides us with his draft registration card for World War II.
The date of birth on the draft registration matches the date in the A-File, so we know we have the same person.

NARA will also offer the 1940 federal census on April 2, 2012.  There is no name index yet.  You can search the digitized images for a place name for guidance.  If your subject of interest was at the same address in 1930 as 1940, you should not have too many enumeration districts to view.  If you have no address for your subject, then you may have to wait for a name index.  You can also identify enumeration districts at SteveMorse.org.

Archival Research Catalog result for digitized image of "Verona" to identify enumeration district
in the (unreleased) 1940 federal census.

In the 1930 federal census, the Newark City Home for Boys in Verona, Essex County, New Jersey
was in enumeration district 7-615.  In the 1940 census, the Home was in district 7-366.
Note the decreasing population of the institution from 252 in 1930 to 71 in 1940.

Marriage Redone

I had a poor copy of a marriage return from New Jersey for Newark in 1888.  Viewing the microfilm at the Archives in Trenton was no better.  The information that I really wanted was the birthplace of the groom and his parents.  My copy looked like this:

Some original records are kept onsite in the manuscripts area, currently open in the afternoons only.

The staff was able to find the original blue marriage return and copy it for me.  It's a much better reproduction than what is on microfilm.  The place of birth now looks like this:

This looks like Sachsen.  I have more work to do to discover the area within Sachsen and possible records.

As a bonus, the back of the marriage return contains signatures of the bride and groom.  The back of the document is not microfilmed and can only be obtained from the manuscripts room.

The marriage itself did not last the year.  Bridge and groom separated in November of 1888.  The details of the divorce will be in an upcoming post.

Roadtrip to Catskill: Tracing Cumming and Heiser

I visited the Catskill Village Cemetery yesterday in Catskill, Greene County, New York.

For years, I have been searching for the parentage of Nellie, wife of Abraham Brewer Duryea.  Nellie died in Glen Ridge, Essex County, New Jersey at Mountainside Hospital on 5 December 1965.  (The certificate was acquired in person from Glen Ridge- back when you could just walk in to town hall and do this.  You can’t do this now.)  Her mother was listed as “unknown.”  Her father was listed as “? Commings.”  Her birthdate was 26 January 1879 in “Catskills, N.Y.”  She was cremated but not buried at Rosedale Cemetery in Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.  The location of her ashes is unknown.  The social security number on her death certificate is not listed in the social security death index.  I wrote to the Social Security Administration for a copy of her application for a number and included a copy of the death certificate.  I received a letter explaining that no such record could be found.

I was not sure if Nellie was born in the Catskills, which covers a vast region, or if she was born in Catksill, a town in Greene County, New York; or if she was born in a completely different location.  I spoke with the town clerk in Catskill, New York, who advised me that birth certificates were sometimes issued in the 1870s and 1880s, but there was no birth certificate matching Nellie.

No matches for baby Nellie in the 1880 census have been found.

Next I obtained the marriage certificate for Nellie to Abraham Brewer Duryea.  They were married in Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey on 9 October 1898.  Nellie’s parents on the marriage certificate appear to be Annie Hyser or Hysen and William Henry Cumming.  This was great.  I had names.  Bride and groom were living in Jersey City.  I found several families named Cumming or Cummings, and a few Hysers.  But none seemed to connect with Nellie.  By the 1900 census, Nellie and Abraham were living in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey, with two babies and no extended relatives.

Following this couple into 1910, they were living in Jersey City with their two children and Beulah Miller, sister-in-law, and Ray Sprague, boarder.  Bingo.  Now following Raymond Sprague, he was in the 1920 census in Orangetown, Rockland County, New York with his wife, Beulah, two children, and the elusive mother of Beulah and Nellie:  Anna B. Brower, age 59, widowed.

Beulah Miller provided more information than Nellie.  Beulah’s birth certificate gives a date of birth of 18 August 1889 at 21 Henry Street in Jersey City; her middle name was Barton; and her parents were James L. Miller and Annie B. Hyser.

Tracking back from Beulah’s birth, I found a marriage certificate for Anna Bell Cumming, with Cumming crossed out and “Hyson” written above, to James Livingstone Miller in Jersey City on 18 June 1886.  His parents were Christopher Miller and Agnes M. Barton.  (Barton was probably the source of Beulah Miller's middle name at birth.  On Beulah's marriage certificate, she uses a middle name of Katherine.)  Anna’s father was Luman and her mother was Catherine Eckler.

Going back to Catskill, in the 1870 census we find Louman Hyser, his wife Catharine E., and their children, Katie, Charles L, Robert D., Hannah, and Nellie M.  I wanted to trace the Hysers back further.  They look German, but keep listing New York as their birthplace.  I also needed to trace Nellie’s father, William Henry Cumming.  I had a timeframe for William’s death:  he died after conceiving Nellie in 1878 but before Anna remarried in 1886.

1870 census, Catskill, Greene County, New York
"Hannah" is Anna Bell

I kept posting inquiries on message boards and was contacted by a Hyser cousin.  He has the last name, but with a variant spelling.  He sent me a compiled genealogy on the Hysers, The Transactions of the Rockefeller Family Association, by Henry Oscar Rockefeller.  This book provides several generations of the Heiser family, starting in the 1780s, when John Heiser married Margaret Rockefeller.  They were the great grandparents of Anna B. Hyser.  According to this book, the elusive Anna B. Hyser married William H. Cummins on 22 November 1877 and then James L. Miller on 18 June 1886.  No mention of another marriage to a man by the last name of Brower.  This particular branch moved to Jersey City in the 1880s or 1890s, but was buried in Catskill.

Sylvia and Reinhard Hasenkopf have transcribed the stones in the Catskill Village Cemetery and posted this information, along with a map, online.  I found potential matches for the Hysers and William Cumming.  So to Catskill Village Cemetery I went.  I don’t know why, but for some very helpful reason, a lot of the women buried in this cemetery have their maiden names on the stones.  I found the family stone for Louman Hyser, his wife Catherine Eckler, and their five children.  The stone to the right is Peter J. Hyser, father of Louman.  (Nellie Hyser, died 1875, is perhaps the source of the name for Nellie Cumming, born 1878.)

 

Peter J. Hyser, 1796-1877

In a neighboring section, I found a stone for William H. Cumming, 1856-1882.  A death date of 1882 would fit the timeframe for the death of Nellie Cumming’s father.  This stone is next to stones for the Grant family.  The Cumming connection is Annie Cumming, wife of John A. Grant, 1793-1876.  I can find the Grant family in Catskill, as well as possible Cummings families with William.  Are they connected?  Do I have the correct William H. Cumming?  I don’t know.  I must keep researching.

William H. Cumming 1856-1882

Annie Cumming Grant, 1793-1876