Sunday, February 12, 2023

1963 New Jersey Death Certificates

Death certificates for the year 1963 are the latest addition to the collection at the New Jersey State Archives in Trenton.

(The Archives may not fulfill a remote request for this late a date. Their cut-off is in the 1940s. The State Department of Health will fulfill a request for death certificates from the 1940s through 1982 as of this writing- though the cause of death will be redacted.)

The certificates are white on the microfilm, enabling nicer snapshots with the camera on a phone.

They were filed by certificate number, not name. You can look up the number in a published index online at Ancestry or The New Jersey Death Index.

Microfilm rolls of death certificates

I looked up all my Duryeas for my ongoing surname project.

Ida Duryea and Albert Duryea both died in 1963. I have not found a record of marriage for them. They had a son named Kent in 1918 (died 1992) in Newark, New Jersey. In the 1920 census, they were living in Newark with Lucy Duryea (born Conklin), the mother of Albert.


Albert married Amelia Unitess in New York City on July 29, 1925. This was listed as the first marriage for both.

Marriage certificate of Albert Duryea and Amelia Unitess
July 29, 1925 in New York City.
His parents- Albert Duryea and Lucy Conklin.
Her parents- Felix Unitess and Barbara Wajulis.

Two weeks after marrying, Amelia gave birth to Shirley Duryea. This baby only lived a few hours. She was born and died August 14, 1925 and was buried at City Cemetery in Newark. This is a defunct cemetery with no public access and whose records have gone missing. We can view Shirley's death certificate from 1925, but not her birth certificate. The cause of death was premature birth.

Death certificate of Shirley Duryea,
born and died August 14, 1925
in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.

In 1927, Albert and Amelia had another daughter, Lola Grace Duryea (died 1984), who lived to adulthood, married and had children.

Ida's death certificate confused me at first. Her father was listed as Meyer Duryea. I could not locate her in my tree using this information. I knew that Kent Duryea's mother was Ida Meyer, so someone mixed up the information. (Death certificates are great sources of information, except when they are not.)

Ida was buried at Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Death certificate of Ida Marie Duryea, died August 30, 1963
in Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey.
Father was George Meyer (not Meyer Duryea).
Mother was Louisa Koch (not Catherine Cannon).

Albert was buried at Hollywood Memorial Park in Union, Union County, New Jersey.

Death certificate of Albert Duryea, died September 10, 1963
at New Jersey State Hospital
in Marlboro, Monmouth County, New Jersey.


Saturday, February 11, 2023

Two More Marriage Ceremonies

Another couple had two marriage ceremonies.

Louis Kossuth Goldberger (1887-1971) and Celia Schlesinger (1887-1962) were married in New Jersey on October 31, 1910. They married again in New York City on April 9, 1911.

Any guesses why this was done? 

Marriage record for Louis Goldberger and Celia Schlesinger
October 31, 1910
Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey

Marriage Record for Louis Goldberger and Celia Schlesinger
April 9, 1911
New York City

His parents were Herman Goldberger and Rosa Balogh. Hers were Moritz Schlesinger and Mary Spitzer.

Records using the surname Goldberger stop in the 1930s. They changed their name to Dormont.

1940 United States Federal Census for Brooklyn, New York
Louis Dormont with wife, Celia; and children:
Paul, Richard, and Miriam


Research Notes:

New York City records of certain years can be searched and downloaded for free on the website of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services.

New Jersey records 1878 forward are not online, but indexes exist. The years 1920-1929 only have initials of the groom, so if you do not have the name of the bride, you may not find your person of interest in the index. The certificates are filed in the State Archives by year in alphabetical order for the years 1904 forward, so you can search year by year if you only know the groom's name.





Sunday, October 30, 2022

George D Russell (1913-1997)

What became of George D Russell is no longer a mystery. In 1946, he returned from service in World War II to his home in Forest Hills, Queens County, New York. I could not find him after this date- until now.

George died in 1997 and was buried in Saint Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York. (As of this writing, the picture of the gravestone on the FindAGrave page is not his, but rather another person of the same name in the same cemetery. There are many men named George Russell; hence, narrowing them down is challenging.)

About five years ago, George D Russell became a person of interest in my family's history. The reasons will not be divulged at this time. See my prior posts here and here.

Among the little information I received about George was:
  • He was a soldier in World War II. His Army serial number was 329 60 000.
  • His last known address was 110-35 72nd Road, Forest Hills, Queens, New York.

Using these two facts, I searched for George using modern-day resources.

Limited information was available. At Fold3.com, this serial number was indeed used by George D Russell, born in 1914. He enlisted in New York City on May 24, 1943 and was married or single, depending on which extraction is viewed.



I ordered the file for this veteran. The service records for World War II were destroyed in a fire. The only surviving document, according to the National Personnel Records Center, was George's final payment voucher, which I promptly requested. No date of birth was on the voucher; but George's signature was. The address in Forest Hills was the same address I was originally provided. (The correspondence and voucher are below.)




Final Payment Voucher for George D Russell
for service in the United States Army during World War II.
(This is a poor copy that was sent to me.)

Unable to quickly find George, I made a family tree of men named George Russell and D Russell who lived in New York and New Jersey and were born around 1914.

When the draft registration cards were published on Fold3, I analyzed all and found no definite matches for the signature. No number on the draft card corresponded with the number for George of Forest Hills.

I tried other techniques, such as searching for the address in newspapers and city directories. When the 1950 census was published earlier this year, I viewed the inhabitants of this address- an apartment building by then. No Russell family.

A few weeks ago, Ancestry's shaky leaf feature signaled that records needed reviewing. The leaf suggested that George of Forest Hills was George Deforest Russell of Malone. I had looked at this George, but did not think he was a match. First, he lived in Malone, New York. This is in Franklin County, just south of the border with Canada. This is about 350 miles north of New York City. Second, the signature on his draft card did not match the signature I had on the final payment voucher.


Map showing distance in miles (350) between New York City and Malone, New York.




In light of Ancestry's leaf, I reviewed the little documentation on both men named George and found a commonality, other than the name. According to the red writing on the side of the draft card, George Deforest of Malone was discharged from the Army on January 14, 1946- the same day on the final payment voucher of George in Forest Hills.



With no other leads, I reviewed George Deforest Russell again. He was born December 4, 1913 in Malone, New York. He died in Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut on November 24, 1997. According to his obituary, he lived in New Canaan, Fairfield County, Connecticut and East Hampton, Suffolk County, New York.

At some point he relocated from northern New York to the target geographical area- but when?

On November 10, 1951, George Deforest Russell married Eleonora Albina Vercelletto in Yonkers, Bronx County, New York. Older birth, marriage, and death records for New York City (Bronx is one of five counties comprising New York City) are online. 1951 is too recent as of this writing, so I ordered it from the City Clerk. (The processing time was two weeks. The cost was $15.)

Marriage License, Bronx County, New York
issued November 3, 1951.
Groom- George Deforest Russell. Bride- Eleonora Albina Vercelletto.


Marriage Certificate.
George Deforest Russell and Eleonora Albina Vercelletto
married November 10, 1951 in Yonkers, Bronx County, New York.


I had hoped to see another version of George's signature for comparison to the final payment voucher. I was disappointed that this document did not include the signatures of the bride and groom; however, I got a more important clue. George was previously married.





George was first married to Thelma Tufexis. This marriage was annulled in New York City on July 14, 1942. The action was against him for fraudulent representation. (As far as I know, New York City seals divorces and annulments for 100 years, making this record unattainable as of this writing. If anyone knows otherwise, kindly comment below.)

George Deforest Russell married Thelma Tufexis at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Forest Hills, Queens, on October 26, 1941. This marriage record is online.

Affidavit for License to Marry
Groom- George Deforest Russell. Bride- Thelma Tufexis.
Signed October 16, 1941 in Forest Hills, New York.
Downloaded from New York City Department of Records and Information Services.

This record provides George's signature, which looks like a match to the final payment voucher. More importantly- the address on this marriage record matches the voucher: 110-35 72nd Road, Forest Hills. The year of birth is off by one.




A note on Thelma Dorothy Tufexis: she was the daughter of John Tufexis of Greece and Irene Fayette. She was born in 1916 in Malone, during her mother's first marriage to William Betters. Note the witness Anna Zdyrko of Brooklyn. Thelma appears in later records as the wife of Nicholas Michael Zdyrko, though I found no marriage record for them. Thelma's first child was born in 1943.

Annie Zdyrko and Jerome Lupo-
Witnesses to the marriage of George Deforest Russell and Thelma Tufexis,
October 26, 1941 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York.

It appears that George D Russell of Forest Hills and George Deforest Russell of Malone are the same people. Perhaps George registered for the draft again when he moved from Malone to Queens around 1940 or 1941. This second number was used for his service, but somehow the first card was located and notated with the service information.