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.

Life, vanished

May 16th marks the 147th anniversary of the death of George W. Duryea.  He was a policeman in New York City.  At the corner of Second Avenue and 63rd Street, just blocks from his house on East 54th, he was shot in the head while attempting to bring in a prisoner after an uprising at Jones Woods.  He was 41 years old and left behind a wife, Rene Brewer, and six children, ages seven to fifteen.

Entry for death of George W. Duryea, 16 May 1864 in New York City.
"Shot while in discharge of his duty."
Individual death certificates were not issued in this time period.
Deaths were recorded in chronological order in a ledger book.

George was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, Westchester County, New York in his wife’s family plot.  His gravestone lists his dates of birth and death, with no hint of the violence that brought him to his early grave.

George W. Duryea
Born Feb. 12, 1823
Died May 16, 1864

As was customary, a coroner’s inquest was conducted immediately and detailed in the newspapers.  We learn that George was shot at three times, with one bullet entering the right temple.  He died almost instantly.  John Cahill was arrested for the crime months later after being tracked down in Ohio.  At trial in February of 1866, Cahill was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to life at Sing Sing State Prison, where, ironically, several of Mrs. Duryea's family members worked as guards.

New York Herald-Tribune
24 February 1866
genealogybank.com

George's family may have received word of his death in an abrupt manner.  Trial testimony in the newspapers tells us that George’s body was taken from the scene of the shooting to the police station and then to his house, where a post-mortem exam was performed.  Can you imagine losing a loved one by violence and then having his body dissected in the front parlor?

New York Herald
20 February 1866
genealogybank.com

Coroner’s inquests are available on microfilm through a local family history center.  Any papers from George’s inquest have not been located, though.

http://www.familysearch.org/

Following the death of her husband, Rene received her own listing in the city directory.  She continued living at the residence she shared with George and his brother, Stephen.

Wilson's city directory for New York City
1865-1866

When we research our family history, sometimes we uncover tragedies, which lead us to a greater understanding of what our ancestors endured. 

Divorce

If your research leads you to suspect a divorce, look for the divorce record.  Herman Lutter and Clara Uhl were married in Newark, New Jersey in January of 1888.  They are not found living together as a couple in the 1900, 1910, or 1920 census.  I suspected that the couple may have divorced because Herman married Emma Neubauer in Newark in March of 1915.  The marriage certificate lists Herman as divorced.

Divorces in the late 1800s in New Jersey were heard in the Chancery Court.  The records for a divorce may be in a few locations with no clear dividing points.

Description of holdings for divorces at the website for the New Jersey Archives.

The Archives in Trenton carries microfilm of the docket for some years of cases heard in Chancery, so I started there.  I found proceedings for Lutter versus Lutter for 1894 and 1895.  I was told that the records for these years are held by the manuscripts room at the Archives, but off site.  I placed an order for copies and about ten days later, I had copies of the divorce proceedings.

There are few details provided in the record, such as the marriage date and place, that I already had.  I discovered the cause of action, desertion of Herman by Clara, not even ten months into the marriage.

You may need to read what is not there.  The marriage ended very quickly.  You also need to gather any other documents that you can find.  There is no mention of a child in these divorce proceedings, but Clara filed a delayed birth certificate for a child in 1935, claiming a birth date of June 1889.

Filing a delayed birth certificate, especially in the mid to late 1930s, is common because of the Social Security Act.  While we should not necessarily read into Clara's not filing for a birth certificate at the time of the birth, we have more of a prospective on Clara's circumstances in 1888.  She left her marital home and returned to her mother when she was newly pregnant.  She may or may not have known about the pregnancy, but that is the timing of the events.

Herman acknowledged his son in his will, dated 1923, leaving him $5.  (Not a large sum of money then or now.)

Reburying the Ancestors

In researching John Frazee's death, I come across a little discrepancy.  His obituary appeared in the New York Times on 5 March 1852.  His wife sued to collect moneys owed to him for his designs, as detailed in this post, and a date of death of 26 February 1852 was given in the case, Lydia Frazee v. United States.  Some of his papers, now available online through the Smithsonian, provide a beautiful and unusual record of death and burial at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.  (I don't know who drew the picture.  Obviously not John Frazee himself.)

The burial records for Green-wood Cemetery are online.  A search for John Frazee turns up some family members in the plot given in the drawing, 19577.  According to this online index, John Frazee was not buried here until 1870.

I found a picture of the grave at findagrave.com.  Always check here for graves, even if your person of interest was not famous.  I expected to find John Frazee at findagrave because he is a little famous, though not as famous as the buildings he designed.

So now more questions:  is the John Frazee buried at Green-wood Cemetery in 1870 the same John Frazee who died in 1852?  If so, where was John originally buried, and why was he moved?  More researching needed.

Googling: A great find

Google is a great resource for genealogical finds.  Search often and be creative.  I have searched for Stephen C. Duryea (1814-1887) many times.  I usually turn up his contemporary, a man on Long Island, or modern day men of the same name.  New records become available daily.  Look at this genealogical gem that I found yesterday:

I do not *know* the parents of Stephen's father, Garret.  There are theories.  When Stephen states "claimant's father," I do not know if he is talking about Lydia Frazee, or her deceased husband, John Frazee (1790-1852).  Since neither has previously turned up while researching the Duryea family tree, I have to search both Lydia and John until I find the link.  John Frazee was famous in his day.  He was a sculptor, artist, and architect.  Perhaps his best known work is his design of the Custom House in New York City.



picture from bc.edu

 The parents of John Frazee are listed in various places as Reuben Frazee and Jane of Rahway, New Jersey.  His wife was Lydia; her maiden name may have been Place.  I am not too worried about the particulars of these people for now, until I decide how, if at all, they are going to relate to Stephen C. Duryea.  John Frazee left behind papers, some of a genealogical nature, and his descendants gave them to the Smithsonian.  I hope to order the two reels of microfilm.

The marriage of Reuben Frazee and Jane may not have been too happy.  I love these little tidbits.  (The strange f is s.)



New Jersey Journal 4 September 1793 viewed at genealogybank.com