Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Using Cemeteries to Track Moves

Laura Winterton was one of my great grandparents.  She was born in 1891 in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey to William Winterton and Catherine Dunn.  Around 1905, her family moved to Newark in Essex County, New Jersey.  In 1910, Laura Winterton married Howard Lutter.  Three generations later, here I am.

Laura died in 1962 in Newark from complications of diabetes and multiple sclerosis.  She was buried in an unmarked grave in Hollywood Cemetery in Union (Union County, New Jersey).  

Recently, I visited family gravesites for the first time in Monmouth County, New Jersey.  Although I do not live far from these cemeteries, I had never visited, probably because these graves were among the few recorded and photographed when genealogy started on the internet.  Visit Interment.net and DistantCousin.com for user-submitted records.  I concentrated on visiting graves that nobody had photographed and posted online, of which there were plenty, and I uploaded my pictures and notes to FindAGrave.


Ancestors of my great grandmother
[Chart created in Excel and modified in Paint]



Green Grove Cemetery in Keyport

William Winterton (1862-1932) and Catherine Dunn (1865-1944), parents of Laura, died in Newark, but are buried in Keyport.


William's parents, John R Winterton (1831-1890) and Sophia T Walling (1835-1906), are buried in a plot shared with Cuttrells, located near the corner of Green Grove Avenue and Hurley Street.


Sophia's parents, William Walling (1803-1870) and Ellen Euphemia Imlay (1807-1895), are also at Green Grove in a family plot.






Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn

John Winterton's parents, Samuel Winterton (1800-1877) and Sally Johnson (1802-1882), relocated to Monmouth County from New York City in the 1850s.  Samuel died in Keyport and Sally in Raritan, but they are both buried at Greenwood Cemetery in New York.  Their burials are searchable at the cemetery's website.



Rose Hill Cemetery in Matawan

At Rose Hill are Laura Winterton's maternal grandparents, Ezra Dunn (1821-1898) and Hermoine Dunlop (1827-1900).  This is a small cemetery.  I was able to find the graves based on the pictures already online.





I marked the GPS location of the graves on FindAGrave.

FindAGrave.com



Google maps, connected by FindAGrave


I am still working on Ezra Dunn's parents.  According to his death certificate, Ezra's parents were Nathaniel Dunn and Sarah.



Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Matawan

Hermoine Dunlop's father, Joseph Dunlop, was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.  This trip illustrates why you want to visit grave sites, rather than just look at pictures or transcriptions online.


In memory of Joseph W DUNLOP who died Apr 26, 1852,
aged 55 years, 2 months, and 4 days.

In the 1850 federal census in Raritan (Monmouth County, New Jersey), we have:
Joseph W. Dunlop, age 54, born in Pennsylvania;
Margaret Dunlop, age 53, born in New Jersey;
some of their children and boarders.

I located a marriage record in 1824 in Monmouth County for Joseph Dunlop and Margaret Little.  I need more evidence to decide if this is the marriage record for this couple.  A trip to the cemetery makes this marriage record more plausible for fitting into my tree.

FamilySearch.org
New Jersey, County Marriages, 1682-1956


I did not see a gravestone for Margaret; however, two Little graves and one Dunlop are next to Joseph Dunlop.  This placement could indicate a relationship.  You cannot see this positioning from online transcriptions or individual pictures of the stones.  (Well, now you can with my labeled picture.)




"The grave of William Johnston, son of Joseph W. and Margaret Dunlop,
died Nov 17, 1832, aged 3 years, 7 months, and 24 days."

"Frances, daughter of Robert and Margaret Little,
who departed this life April 30th, 1839,
aged 20 years, 6 months, and 8 days."

"Robert Little, a native of the Billis, near Virginia, County Cavan, Ireland,
who emmigrated to America A.D. 1807,
and departed this life October 29th, 1821,
in the 37 year of his age.  

For many years an active merchant in this place."

If this Little grave has a connection to Margaret, wife of Joseph Dunlop, then I will have a great link to the hometown in Ireland.  This would also be the first Irish ancestor found in my father's tree.

Monday, August 18, 2014

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.






Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Finding a German Hometown


SCHEIBE

This is the town of origin for Herman Lutter, one of my great great grandfathers.  Thank you TP for figuring this out!

The above image is from the 1888 certificate of marriage for Herman Lutter and Clara Uhl in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States.  All of Herman's other records that I have located do not provide a town; instead, his birthplace is given as Thuringia or Germany.

My other clue for locating family in Germany is from Herman's 1924 will, where he names a sister, Ottillia Michel "of Neuhaus, Thuringen, Germany."

During Herman's lifetime, Germany was unified and World War I was fought.  After he died, World War II was fought, Germany was divided, then unified again.  Place names, political control, and borders changed.

The next trick:  Where are Scheibe and Neuhaus today and what are they called?





Scheibe-Alsbach is municipality in the German State of Thuringia, Sonneberg District.  Neuhaus am Rennweg is nearby.  There are a few places in Germany using the name Neuhaus, though.




I found a map of Thuringia dated 1905.  Two towns named Scheibe and Neuhaus are next to each other.  This looks promising.


Neuhaus and Scheibe are in Rudolstadt.  Just south, in Sonneberg, is another town called Neuhaus.




The 1905 map of Thuringia has latitude and longitude grids.  When plugged into a modern-day map, the location of Neuhaus and Scheibe in Rudolstadt is now Neuhaus am Rennweg in the Sonneberg District of Thuringia.  This is where I need to look for records.  The area is in a forested mountain region, which impeded travel.  The Czech Republic is fifty miles to the east.  I hope to discover how this geography shaped the family history.

Archives for Thuringia has a website!  But in German, naturally.