Assembling a Couple's Children through Death Records

Otto Lutter (1845-1909) was a brother of my great great grandfather, Herman Lutter (1860-1924).  They immigrated to Newark, New Jersey from Thuringia, Germany in the 1880s.  Otto married Martha Klindt (1864-1922).  In Herman's will from 1924, he mentioned Gussie, a daughter of Otto.  This was Augusta Lutter, born in April of 1892.  I found a record of birth for Augusta, not named at birth, and her sister, Alwine, born in 1895.

According to the 1900 federal census, Otto and Martha had four children, one still living- Augusta.

By going through death records, I located a third child, William.  He died at 39 Rutger[s] Street in Newark on July 26, 1894 and was buried at nearby Woodland Cemetery.  Otto was buried at Woodland fifteen years later, but not with William.

Rutgers Street in Newark no longer exists.
The area is part of the Rutgers University campus.

Baby William was nine months old when he died, so he was born around October 1893.  There is no entry in the birth index for him under Lutter or Luther.

William was probably named after his paternal grandfather.  (The paternal grandmother's name varied on the three records that I have, so that is another mystery to decipher.)  Finding all the children of a couple is important for linking the family together through repetition of given names.  The fourth child of Otto and Martha will probably be uncovered in a death, not birth, record.  Births were not consistently reported.

"Ottillis" Lutter was buried at Woodland in December of 1898.  This could be the fourth child, or it could be Alwine, born in 1895.  I have not found a death record for Alwine yet.

Interactive Family Tree

Create your own interactive family tree through a tool developed by Bradford F Lyon.


Below is a tree of my father's ancestors.  At a glance, you can see the lines that are traced back farthest, as well as the tail ends of each line.  (Individual names appear as you scroll the cursor.)

My mother's tree, in contrast, does not extend past the 1800s, so far fewer ancestors are displayed.

You can also generate a descendant tree.  The tree below is for Joost DeRieux, the original immigrant of my Duryea line, who was born around 1635.  Not every descendant is in the family tree file that I used to create this diagram, but you can see at a glance which branches died out or which ones need further research.

LivingDNA Test

I took another DNA test.

LivingDNA.com is a DNA testing company based in the United Kingdom.  The analysis will include a breakdown of ancestry into eighty different regions of the world, 21 of them specific to the United Kingdom.  I will share my findings with you.

My kit cost $159 (US Dollars) and shipped in three days from Kentucky, United States.

Cheek swabbing is the method of collection.

My mother's ancestry is of recent origin from Ireland.  I am hoping that this DNA test may reveal geographical areas of prevalence in my DNA and link me to close cousins in the United Kingdom.  If customers are primarily from the same country as my mother's ancestors, LivingDNA could be a deeper pool of potential close cousins than other companies whose customers are overwhelmingly from the United States.

I'm not a fan of ancestry results, finding them widely varied, and prefer to see DNA cousins to figure out the common ancestors.