The Children of Ottillia Lutter and Florenz Michel of Neuhaus, Germany

The three children of Ottillia Michel inherited under the will of their uncle, Herman Lutter, who died in 1924 in Wall Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. They named children were Paul, Edeline, and Anna of Neuhaus, Thuringia, Germany.

In 1926, three people with the surname Michel signed releases to receive their portions of Herman's estate. Edeline and Anna had married. Paul did not sign. This was not explained. The third person who signed was Minna Michel. She will be discussed in a separate post.

Edeline signed as The Widow Edeline Vorwerk, born Michel. She resided in Grimma, Saxony, Germany. I need to trace her and any possible descendants.

Anna signed as Anna Heÿm, born Michel, in Dresden, Saxony, Germany.

Records for Dresden are available on Ancestry for this time period. I easily found Anna's marriage and death records, as well as birth records for two children.

On March 21, 1905, Anna Laura Thekla Michel married Heinrich Karl Heÿm in Dresden. Her parents were Florenz Michel and Ottilia Lutter. His parents were Friedrich Heÿm and Luisa Langbein. The record is below.

Anna Laura Thekla Michel and Heinrich Karl Heÿm
Page 1 of the Marriage
March 21, 1905 in Dresden

Anna Laura Thekla Michel and Heinrich Karl Heÿm
Page 2 of the Marriage
March 21, 1905 in Dresden

The marriage record is two pages. Note the uppercase B in the top corner, indicating that this is a marriage record. Uppercase A indicates a birth record. Uppercase C indicates a death record. (Thank you Germanology Unlocked.)

This handwriting is very difficult for me to read. I hope to develop this skill as I delve into German records. More information is on this record, such as occupations.

Below is the information provided in the index at Ancestry.

Dresden, Germany, Marriages, 1876-1927

Name

Anna Laura Thekla Michel

Gender

weiblich (Female)

Age

24

Birth Date

27. Mai 1880 (27 May 1880)

Marriage Date

21. Mrz 1905 (21 Mar 1905)

Marriage Place

Dresden, Deutschland (Germany)

Civil Registration Office

Dresden XI

Father

Florenz Michel

Mother

Ottilie Michel

Spouse

Heinrich Karl Heÿm

Two sons were soon born to Anna and Heinrich:

• July 22, 1905: Friedrich Anton Richard Heÿm
• August 9, 1906: Heinrich Paul Heÿm

Birth of Friedrich Anton Richard Heym
July 22, 1905 in Dresden

Dresden, Germany, Births, 1876-1907

Name:	Friedrich Anton Richard Heym
Gender:	männlich (Male)
Birth Date:	22. Jul 1905 (22 Jul 1905)
Birth Place:	Dresden, Sachsen (Saxony), Deutschland (Germany)
Civil Registration Office:	Dresden VI
Father:	Heinrich Karl Heym
Mother:	Anna Laura Thekla Heym
Certificate Number:	969

Birth Heinrich Paul Heym
August 9, 1906 in Dresden

Dresden, Germany, Births, 1876-1907

Name:	Heinrich Karl Heym
Gender:	männlich (Male)
Residence Date:	9. Aug 1906 (9 Aug 1906)
Residence Place:	Dresden, Sachsen (Saxony), Deutschland (Germany)
Spouse:	Anna Laura Thekla Heym
Child:	Heinrich Paul Heym
Certificate Number:	1031

Anna died July 5, 1949. She was 69 years old.

Death Anna Laura Thekla Heym (born Michel)
July 5, 1949 in Dresden

Dresden, Germany, Deaths, 1876-1957

Name:	Anna Laura Thekla Heym[Anna Laura Thekla Michel]
Age:	69
Birth Date:	27. Mai 1880 (27 May 1880)
Death Date:	4. Jul 1949 (4 Jul 1949)
Death Place:	Dresden, Deutschland (Germany)
Civil Registration Office:	Cotta (03)
Certificate Number:	2099
Reference Type:	42
Sequence Number:	31

If anyone reading this is related to these Heÿm descendants or has further information, please write to me. Thank you!

Next: discussion of the third Michel.

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.

New York City Records Online

Images of New York City vital records are now online- for free!

The included years start in the mid 1860s or upon creation of the five boroughs in 1898. The final years for each type of record:

Births through 1909

Deaths through 1948

Marriages through 1937

The records for earlier years are available elsewhere. To obtain records for subsequent years, you need to jump through the hoops of the Department of Health.

Also not included are affidavits for marriage, usually issued between 1908-1937. If your couple of interest married during these years, obtaining copies of the affidavit from the Municipal Archives might provide additional information.

Search or browse birth, marriage, and death records for New York City
Website as of this writing: https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/search

The digitized images are in color. Compare the digitized versus paper copy of the marriage certificate of my great grandfather, Howard Lutter, and his second wife, Fiorita Lorenz, in 1928.

The affidavit for a license to marry provided details about the divorces of both parties.

Ancestry has an index of these vital records, including copies of the indexes.

I will note a caveat I uncovered when trying to find a marriage record in the new digitized records.

I was looking up a couple, George Stegman and Charlotte Taylor. They were born in the 1890s in New York. Ancestry's index of licenses has the date as December 30, 1913, which corresponds to the images of the indexes. This is not the marriage date. This is the date the license was issued.

I sought the marriage record to discover the names of the parents of the bride and groom. The record was not found in 1913. I expanded the search and found the record in 1914. The ceremony was January 4, 1914 in Manhattan.

George Stegman and Charlotte Taylor married January 4, 1914 in Manhattan, New York County, New York.
Groom's parents- Henry Stegman and Martha Tuthill.
Bride's parents- Edmund Taylor and Catherine Sweeney.

It is understandable that the marriage ceremony occurred a short time after the license was issued. When the license is obtained at the end of a year, the couple might not marry until the following year. This is an important distinction when reporting dates of events or looking for subsequent records.