Amanuensis Monday: Bible of Reverend John Hudson Duryea

A Duryea family bible found its way to me via eBay.  (Thanks Uncle Howard!)

Bible as advertised on eBay

The bible itself was published in 1838.  In the front are loose papers from the Jerome and Leach families.  Within the bible are records for John Hudson Duryea (1810-1895) and his wives.  The connection that I can figure out is:  Richard Jerome (born 1753) and Esther Leach (born 1760) were the maternal grandparents of Spencer Cone Blake (1835-1911), who married Harriet Wallace (1839-1921).  Harriet's mother, Elizabeth Thompson (1815-1852), was the second wife of Reverend John Hudson Duryea.  Reverend Duryea served at the Second Reformed Church in Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey.

Reverend Theodore W Welles, the author of this book, married Reverend Duryea's daughter,
Mary Sophia Duryea, on April 24, 1900, according to the family bible.

Book mark.  Counted cross stitch.
"Feed they sheep and lambs."
Bible Rev J H Duryea.
Bible P Bogert.

Someone transcribed this original record from another bible.  The pages are loose inside the Duryea bible.
Note that the transcript is inaccurate.

I did not unfold the papers because they are too fragile.

The corresponding original paper for this transcript is missing.

The corresponding original paper for this transcript is missing.

PAGES WITHIN THE BIBLE

I transcribed the records for easier finding online and preservation.

HANDWRITTEN PAGE

Richard Jerom and Esther Leach joined in

Mariage Covenant June 11 [crossed out] 21 1789.

Richard born September 28 1753.

Esther his wife born July 22 1760.

Our Children  births  is as followeth

Irene born March 29th D ~ 1790 ~

Richard born December 16th D ~ 1792 ~ [corrected to 1791?]

Clarisa born January 10 D ~ 1793 ~

Olive born March 27th D ~ 1795 ~

Nancy born May 20th D ~ 1797 ~

Sally born August [?]th D ~ 1799 ~

Lovina born December 29th D ~ 1801 ~

Mary born May 18th D ~ 1804 ~

Richard Jerom Grand Son

David J Peck born September 25th 1811

Olive Rogers died December 19th 1820 - - Aged 25

Clarisa Rineford died October 27th 1821  Aged 28

Richard Jerome died May 15th 1837  Aged 83

Irene Jerome died May 15 1841  Age 57

[?] died January 10 1844  Aged 83

[Illegible]

HANDWRITTEN PAGE

Lovina Stebbins died October 30 1856  Aged 54

Anson Hillman died January 3 1870  Aged 37 and 4 months

Mary Darrow died Jany 3d 1842  Aged 38

OTHER SIDE OF HANDWRITTEN PAGE

John Jerome

Arrived in America about 1735 coming from France to escape persecution – first landing on Isle of Wight.

3 brothers came together – John – Augustus – and Stephen.

Augustus stayed in N. Y.

TYPED (NO ORIGINAL FOUND)

From the “Jerome” Bible

King James – Oxford Edition – 1776

Joseph Leach & Mary Rogers Joyned in Marriage Covenant

April 22, A.D. 1739

Joseph born Feb. 12, 1710 – Mary, his wife, born May 7, 1718.

Our children’s Births & Deaths is as followeth.

Joseph, born August 13th, 1740

Daniel, born April 30th, 1742

Amos, born Jan. 24th, 1744

Amos, born Feb. 17th, 1746

Mary, born Feb. 1st, 1748

Abraham, born Feb. 17th, 1750

Esther, born April 20, 1752

                Esther dec’d this life March 5, 1753

Isaac, born Jan 27, 1754

Esther, ye 2^nd daught. born July 22, 1760

James, dec’d this life Oct. 2, 1764, aged 21 years

Isaac, dec’d this life Jan. 21, 1772, aged 18 years

Amos, dec’d this life October 8, 1774, aged 28 years.

From the second page.

Esther Jeroms Book

Richard H Jerom

Richard Jerome in the Year of Our Lord (?)

Esther Jerome in the Year of our Lord (?)

Note: Spelled as written.

NEXT TYPED PAGE (SEE ORIGINAL)

From page in back of Bible

Richard Jerom & Esther Leach, Joined in Mariage Covenant

June 21, 1739

Richard, born September 21, 1793.

Esther, his Wife, Born July 22, 1760

[In pencil:  21 yrs later than 1^st Esther]

Our children births is as followeth:

Irene, born March 29th, 1790

Richard, born December 14th, 1792

Clarisa, born January 10, 1793

Olive, born March 27th, 1795

Nancy, born May 20th, 1797

Sally, born August 1st, 1799

Lovina, born December 29^th, 1801

Mary, born May 1st, 1804

Richard Jerome Grand Son

David J Peck, born September 25th, 1811

Olive Rogers, born December 19th, 1820

Clarisa Rixford, born October 27th, 1821

Richard Jerome, died May 15^th, 1834, aged 83

Irene Jerome died May 15^th, 1841, age 54

Esther, wife, died January 10, 1899, age 83

Lovina Stebbins, died October 30, 1896, aged 54

Mary Darrow, died January 3rd, 1862, age 38

[In pencil:  There was another Mary Darrow, related to Ephriam or Percy Lyon.]

Inside 1838 “Duryea” bible

MARRIAGES

Robert Wallace and Elizabeth Thompson

Married Sept 15th 1836

John Hudson Duryea and Elizabeth T Wallace

Married April 10th 1844

John H Duryea and Sarah Jane Burhans

Married Decr 12, 1854

John Hudson Duryea and Sophia Townsley

Married Sept 5, 1837

Spencer C Blake and Harriet S Wallace

Sept 16, 1862

Richard W Dockson and Sarah T Wallace

June 20, 1876

John H Duryea Jr and Emma Mundy

Married Decr 24th 1881

Theodore W Welles and Mary Sophia Duryea

Married April 24th 1900

BIRTHS

Robert Wallace born March 13th 1812

Elizabeth Thompson born Oct 18th 1815

John Hudson Duryea born November 28th 1810

Sophia Townsley born March 3, 1817

Sarah Jane Burhans born July 19, 1822

Richard W Dockson born Decr 16, 1829

Theodore W Welles born May 6th 1839

Sarah Wallace was born June 19th 1837

William Wallace was born Augt 29th 1838

Harriet S Wallace was born Novemr 22d 1839

John Hudson Duryea was born March 12, 1845

Robert T Duryea was born May 12, 1846

Mary Sophia Duryea born April 30, 1849

Elizabeth Duryea born April 3, 1851

Emma Duryea born 1857

DEATHS

Robert Wallace died August 8th 1839

William Wallace son of Robert and Elizabeth T died September 6th 1839

Sophia T Duryea died Sept 6, 1842

Revd John Hudson Duryea died Augt 7th 1895

Sara Jane Burhans widow of Rev. John H Duryea, D. D. died May 9th 1909 aged 86 years, 9 m, 20d.

Harriet S Wallace, widow of Spencer C Blake, died Sept 18th 1921.

John Hudson Duryea died Feb 14th 1923.

Emma Duryea wife of John Hudson Duryea died Dec 28th 1924.

Robert T Duryea son of John H and Elizabeth T Duryea died March 15, 1850.

Elizabeth T Duryea died Febr 21, 1852.

Elizabeth T Druyea daughter of John H and Elizabeth T Duryea died Febr 14, 1864 aged 12 yrs, 10m, 11d.

Richard W Dockson died May 4, 1877 aged 47 years, 4m, 18d.

Spencer C Blake died July 4th 1911.

Sarah T Dockson died July 8th 1924.

INVITATION

Mr Samuel Duryea

Present

Mrs Elizabeth Wallace compliments to Mr and Mrs Duryea requesting the pleasure of their company on Wednesday morning the 10th inst at 9 oclock.

Crawford April 6th 1877

Death Certificate Not Enough

The death certificate for Alexander Lutter has arrived.  He died in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois on December 23, 1897.  Unfortunately, his parents are not listed.  He was 33 years old when he died of "fatty degeneration of the heart."  Is he a brother of my great great grandfather, Herman Lutter?  We still do not know.

I obtained the date of death from a local newspaper, but the Cook County Archives were initially unable to locate a certificate.  (Alexander's wife, Ottilie Dahlke, died in 1904.  Her death certificate was easily found and listed Waldheim Cemetery as the place of burial.  Two cemeteries share this name, but neither could locate a record of this Lutter branch.  One is still named Waldheim; the other is now Forest Home Cemetery.)

Alexander Lutter does not appear in the online index through Cook County's search page.  Actually, no deaths for the year 1897 appear in this index.

Recently FamilySearch.org produced an index of deaths in Cook County.  Alexander Lutter appeared.  I reapplied for the death certificate via postal mail to the Cook County Clerk and received the death certificate in a few weeks.

The death certificate referenced a coroner's report.  An online index provided the location of this record.  I sent away for a copy.  The slightest clue could help place this piece of the puzzle into a larger picture.

This is done as a quest to find Alex Lutter, a witness to the marriage of my great great grandparents, Herman Lutter (1860-1924) and Clara Uhl (1864-1955) in 1888 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.  I find no record of an Alexander Lutter in Newark and no connection between the Chicago Lutters and my Lutters.  Herman Lutter's will mentioned children of two siblings, Otto and Ottilie, but not Alexander.

The only hint that tells me that I could be on the right path is a DNA match at AncestryDNA to a great great granddaughter of Alex Lutter and Ottlie Dahlke through their daughter, Emma, who married Frank Scaar.  This person has not responded to my inquiries.

Additional Details for a Family Story

One of the family stories of my maternal grandmother was that her grandmother, Delia Joyce (1862-1929), was a baby when her mother threw her to safety just as she was dragged to her death by a train.

The 1870 federal census has an accompanying mortality schedule that listed people who died in the year 1870 before the census commenced on June 1st.  Mary Joyce was on this mortality schedule in Pawling, Dutchess County, New York, as being killed by "cars" in May of 1870.  Her widower, Patrick Joyce, and four children, Mary, Adelia (Delia), John, and James were enumerated on the actual census.

Absent a death certificate, additional information was sought from newspapers.  The accident was in Katonah, south of Pawling in Westchester County, New York.  One article did not mention a child and another mentioned an infant child.  Delia was about seven years old at the time of the accident, so the focus was on one of her younger brothers as the baby who was saved.

I just found some more newspaper articles about this tragedy that clarify that the child was female, though she is not named and could have been Delia or her older sister Mary.  The articles appeared June 21st in the New York Herald and June 22nd in the Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser.

The key to finding these articles was by not using Mary's name as a search term.  Instead, I looked for articles containing Katonah (where the accident occurred) and Pawling (where Mary lived) with the narrow date of May or June of 1870.

Two newspapers carried the article about "a respectable married woman" from Pawling, not named, whose leg was "almost sever[ed]" by the train as she attempted to disembark when the train started to depart so that she did not leave her daughter who was already safely on the platform.

According to another article, Mary lived a few hours.

Mary (who was born as Mary or Margaret Campbell in Ireland, according to the records of her children), should not have been on the 1870 mortality schedule if she died after June 1st.  Perhaps her husband could not recall the exact date of death and the census recorder noted her information for the month of May.  Good thing this rule was bent because I may have never found any information on this sad story if Mary had not appeared on that mortality schedule.

23andMe Non Update

To celebrate DNA Day, FamilyTreeDNA and AncestryDNA had brief sales on their kits.  Their autosomal DNA testing kits regularly cost $100 as of this writing.

23andMe moved in the opposite direction and doubled its price in October of 2015 to $199.  The price was reduced temporarily by $50 a few times since then.  To celebrate Mother's Day, the $50 price drop is available to some customers through May 8, 2016.  (If you are not in the United States, you see a different version of 23andMe with different pricing structures.)

What bothered me was the rest of this email, in which I was again promised the "migration to the new 23andMe experience."  I have been waiting since November, when anonymous DNA matches were supposedly being phased out.  My ancestors took less time to migrate across the Atlantic Ocean in dinky ships.

I can see new matches.  Am I not seeing all of them?  Did an unknown close relative test but is blocked from view?  Some matches have full names while others have initials or partial names.  These profiles I can contact to request to "share genomes," which simply means we will both be able to view the shared segments of DNA to possibly assign to a common ancestral branch.  But I still have many anonymous matches, people with no identifying information and no way of being reached.

23andMe.com:  As of November 11th [2015], some aspects of DNA Relatives have been modified in preparation for the transition to the new 23andMe experience.  Pending introductions have been canceled.  Anonymous participants will only be able to receive messages from users that have been transitioned to the new experience. . .

Based on the amount of shared DNA, these genetic cousins are likely not closer than third cousins.

With the "old" site, I could request sharing of any match, though most did not respond.  Responses were often bizarre and irrelevant.  Maybe one day I will feature the most notable in a blog post.

Buy more kits from a site that has been stuck for almost six months?  No thank you.  My latest autosomal tests have been at FamilyTreeDNA and uploaded to GedMatch.

Book Review: The Rosie Project

"The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion is a funny book about a man's quest to find a compatible woman to marry.

The relationship of Don and Rosie is intensified by their joint project to uncover the identify of Rosie's biological father, an endeavor in line with Don's technical skills as a professor of genetics.  Their pool of candidates are the male students who graduated medical school with Rosie's mother.  Their collection methods are underhanded and mostly done without the knowledge of the people whose DNA is captured.

In the end, the biological father was identified when the obvious was not overlooked anymore.  The man who raised Rosie was her biological father, as determined by a blood drawn in a fight.

Those of us without such nerve and access to DNA labs can use commercial companies such as Family Tree DNA and 23andMe to find biological relatives.

Five-Generation Places of Birth Family Tree

Thanks to J Paul Hawthorne at Geneaspy for this idea of a family tree focused on places of birth.

At a glance, you can visualize by color the locations where your ancestors were born.  This reveals migratory patterns and where records can be found.

My father's tree has one outlier:  my paternal grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980), was born in Pennsylvania.  This was because his father, Howard Lutter (1889-1959), a musician, was performing in Philadelphia at this time.  Their usual residence was Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.

My mother's tree is more challenging.  By the time we go five generations back, we are not in the United States.  I listed her paternal grandparents as born in Slovakia.  The area of origin is within the current borders of the country of Slovakia.  They were from central Europe where governmental control and political borders changed often.  They spoke German.

Previous ideas for focused family trees were:

Causes of Death

Cemeteries

You can use this type of family tree format for any feature you would like to showcase, such as number of children or place of death.

Family Tree Repair: Hyser and Preston

While working on a branch of my Hyser family, I noticed that online family trees had a different year and place of death for Adelaide Hyser, wife of Sherwood Preston.  Adelaide was a sister of my father's 3rd great grandfather, Louman Hyser (1826-1895).

In the 1855 New York State census, Adelaide and husband lived in Catskill, Greene County, with two children.  In the 1860 federal census, Adelaide was living with her father and three children, minus the husband, in Catskill.  Adelaide relocated to Jersey City after the 1870 census.

My source for Adelaide's death was from a compiled genealogy of the Rockefeller family.  In this work, Adelaide died in Jersey City, [Hudson County], New Jersey on February 6, 1907.

Online trees had the year of death as 1908.  Places included Jersey City, Union Hill in Morris County, and Union Hill in Hudson County.

The source for this date and these places of death was from an application by Irving Sherwood Preston (a great grandson of Adelaide) to join the Sons of the American Revolution under the patriot Simon Rockefeller.  In viewing the actual application [database at Ancestry.com], you can see that the date given for Adelaide's death was February 6, 1908, but no place of death was given.

The compiled genealogy and the SAR application are both derivative sources with questionable reliability.  I needed the actual death certificate.  Fortunately, I copied many years of Preston deaths because I am a Preston descendant on my mother's side of the family.  The last Preston in my line was Anna Preston (1890-1921).  I have not found a relation between my great grandmother Anna Preston and Adelaide Hyser's husband Sherwood Preston.

According to the death certificate, Adelaide M Preston, daughter of Peter Hyzer and Ella [Fritz], died in Jersey City on February 6, 1908.

Her obituary appeared in the newspaper Jersey Journal, viewable at GenealogyBank.com (pay site).  A textual search for "Preston" did not yield this result.  I searched by date.

Burial was in Catskill.  Adelaide's father, brother, and other family members were buried at Catskill Village Cemetery.  I don't see a grave listing for Adelaide online.

Winter in New Jersey

This winter was mild in New Jersey.  Temperatures above freezing and little snow enabled me to visit cemeteries more this winter than in the past.  (Plus a physical issue prevents me from working out for hours like I used to, so I spend more time on genealogy.)

My contributions to Find A Grave reflect this wonderful winter weather.  During a time of year usually reserved to indoor pursuits, I added over 800 new graves and about 2500 photos.

Find A Grave is a free resource to locate final resting places.  The site is now under the Ancestry.com umbrella.  Memorials and pictures are added by anyone who wishes to participate.  The Find A Grave mobile app enables quick creations of memorials.

To find a name at Find A Grave, you need an exact spelling.  Ancestry.com offers a search engine that permits fuzzy searching but is not updated instantly.

First Cousins, Three Generations

Another close match appeared at FamilyTreeDNA for my maternal uncle.

The common ancestors of these three cousins were Mary Zolder (1870-1948) and Samuel Haas (1867-1945).  They were born in Slovakia, married in 1890 in New York City, and died in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey.  The three cousins who tested DNA descend from three of Mary and Samuel's eleven children.

The actual relation of this newly-appeared person is first cousin, twice removed.  (Blue in the screenshot below.)  He and my uncle share ten segments* of identical DNA for a total of 198 cM.  The longest segment is 40 cM.

The prior close cousin is a first cousin, once removed.  (Orange in the screenshot below.)  He shares fifteen segments of DNA with my uncle for a total of 355 cM.  The longest segment is 80 cM.

These values are within the expected range for these relations.

What I found remarkable was that none of the shared DNA overlaps; no segments are identical in all three cousins.  The chromosome browser at FamilyTreeDNA does not allow me to compare other people, but the "In Common With" function shows that both cousins match each other, just not where or how much.

* Number of segments over 5 cM.  I did not include segments below 5 cM in this calculation.  FamilyTreeDNA includes these segments in its calculations.

New York City Marriage for New Jersey Folks

A reminder to check New York City records when researching New Jersey families.

I could not find a marriage record for my great grandfather Howard Lutter (1889-1959) to his second wife, Fiorita Lorenze (1890-1969) in New Jersey because they married in New York City.  (Copies can be requested online.  The current fee is $18.50.)

Howard's second wife was married to James Winnie and had two daughters with him.  Howard boarded with the Winnie family in Bloomfield (Essex County, New Jersey) and then purchased the house.  The address was 453 North 18th Street, but was renamed and renumbered to 171 Ampere Parkway.

Before Howard's divorce was final, he purchased the house where he was boarding.
The seller, Fiorita, would become the second wife of Howard.

Howard's testimony in his divorce.
You can view the full case file here.

Fiorita Lorenze and James Winnie should have divorce papers in Essex County, New Jersey.  It will be interesting to read how Howard Lutter boarded with them, purchased the house from them, and then married Fiorita.  Howard's divorce from Ethel Laurel Winterton was finalized in 1927, about 18 months before Howard remarried.  He blamed the failure of their marriage on Ethel's refusal to care for the home and children and to have his supper waiting for him when he got home from work.

The day before Fiorita Lorenze remarried to Howard Lutter, she arrived back in New York City from France.

By the 1930 census, Fiorita and Howard were living together as a family unit with his children and one of hers.

James Winnie was living with a new wife, Laura Brocker, and her son, Clifford Yunker.

Ethel Laurel did not remarry.

Family Tree Repair: O'Donnell, Part Two

To correct my O'Donnell tree, I need to documentation that Mary, wife of Cornelius "Neil" O'Donnell, was an O'Donnell herself and not named Gallagher.

A possible marriage was in the Indiana, Marriage Index, 1800-1941 at Ancestry.com for Neil O'Donnell and Mary O'Donnell in Hancock County 1869.  A paper copy of this marriage was received from the Hancock County Clerk's office with a turn-around time of one week.

Without other identifying information, I can't be sure that this is the same couple from my tree.  No town, no ages, no parents, no witnesses.

The first child, Rose, was born in 1870.  The 1870 federal census in Center (Greenfield), Hancock County, Indiana, enumerates a couple that is probably my Neil and Mary O'Donnell, plus Neil's brother, Charles.

In the 1880s, the family relocated to Howard County, where Rose O'Donnell married Frank Lungren in 1889 and Agnes O'Donnell married Cornelius Carey in 1902.  These marriages are online (free).  Again, no towns, parents, ages, or witnesses.

http://www.howardcountymemory.net/item.aspx?details=29205

http://www.howardcountymemory.net/item.aspx?details=31385

The Carey-O'Donnell marriage is for this branch.  Father Charles M Carey, son of Agnes O'Donnell, edited the book of poems by his uncle, Father Charles L O'Donnell.

Additional records that may yield clues include Catholic church records and death records.

If anyone is familiar with research in Indiana, please let us know if there could be recordings of marriages at the town or state level that yield distinguishing information.