Finding the Death Record of Charles Luther, 1919

Charles Luther (or Lutter), born in the 1860s in Germany, is likely a close relative of my great great grandfather, Herman Lutter (1860-1924).

I searched for Charles in:
Germany
Newark, New Jersey
Chicago, Illinois
Wisconsin
Brooklyn, New York
Connecticut

He was last seen in the 1915 New York State census in Brooklyn with his wife, Therese (Turnow or Doanow) and eight of their children.

In 1917 in Brooklyn, Therese, a divorcee, remarried to Frederick Brink. They eventually moved to Connecticut.


I sought a death certificate for Charles Luther because it could show his parents. I needed more information on Charles to figure out his relationship to my Lutter branch.

Well, I found Charles's death certificate. He returned to Newark, Essex County, New Jersey and died February 28, 1919 at the Newark City Hospital from pneumonia.

How do I know that this is the death certificate for the correct Charles Luther?

Burial was at Cemetery of The Evergreens in Brooklyn. The cemetery kindly responded to my burial inquiry. Charles Luther was buried in 1919 in the same plot as Theresa Brink, who died in 1949.

Charles' birth, 1862 in Germany, is a close enough match.

Charles' occupation was carpenter on the death certificate. In the 1884 Newark City Directory at 40 Rankin, living with my Herman, was Carl Luther, a cabinetmaker. In the 1910 federal census in Brooklyn, Charles was a carpenter.

Charles' residence on the death certificate was 290 Bergen Street in Newark. In the 1920 city directory for Newark, Charles C Lutter Jr, carp, resided at 290 Bergen. No other Lutters or Luthers are listed at this address.

Clara R was my great great grandmother, Clara Uhl.
Herman was my great great grandfather. Clara was his first wife.
Howard was the son of Clara and Herman.

Was Charles Luther a junior? Maybe it was an error in the city directories. Maybe he was not named after his father, but rather an uncle. Wilhelm Lutter is consistently listed as the father of Herman Lutter and his brother, Otto. Perhaps their father was Wilhelm Karl? Charles Luther named a son Charles William. (And another Otto Herman.)

Guardianship proceedings took place in Newark in 1919 for Charles "Luther or Lutter." These records are not online. The Charles Luther I seek would have left behind three children under the age of 18 (Alice, Charles William, and Otto Herman), so a guardianship would be consistent.

The death certificate stated that Charles Luther was married, though Charles himself was the informant. If Charles remarried after divorcing Therese in 1917, that record could provide the names of his parents. I need to check the Archives for a possible marriage.

The local papers were no help. Charles received a mere entry of his name in the Newark Sunday Call.

Frederick Brink (1846-1930), the second husband of Therese Turnow, is also buried at Evergreens Cemetery, but with his first wife, Christiana Rueger (1851-1893). They married in 1875 in New York City and had a few children together. I am still reconstructing his family. In 1894, one year after Christiana's death, Frederick Brink remarried to Dorothea Kloppmann (1851-1915).

Below are their obituaries from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

The Death of Elizabeth Duryea, 1901

After discovering that Elizabeth Duryea, widow of Joseph Henley (born Jones?), remarried to Augustus B Palmer in 1885, locating her death certificate was the next step.

According to her obituary in the Jersey Journal, Elizabeth died on March 4, 1901 in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey.

Note: GenealogyBank.com is not a free site.

New Jersey death certificates are not online. Death certificates are available on microfilm at the New Jersey State Archives, but are only filed alphabetically from 1904 through 1948. For a death in 1901, there is fortunately an index and it is online.

Using Ancestry.com's index of the New Jersey death index, two people named Elizabeth Palmer died in 1901. The image icon next to the entries links to the index, not the certificates.

Below are some of the microfilm rolls at the Archives for New Jersey deaths for the years 1901, 1902, and 1903.

The correct Elizabeth Palmer was death certificate number 3469.

According to her death certificate, Elizabeth was buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens, New York. The gravestone does not bear her name. She died of cancer of the breast.

Her parents are listed as Joseph L Scott and Sarah M.

Death certificates are great for finding out the prior generation- except when they aren't.

Elizabeth Duryea was the daughter of Sarah Moffitt (1815-1896) and John H[orton] Duryea. Elizabeth was born in 1836, a year likely accurate because Elizabeth was born after her father died in New York City in April of 1836.

Elizabeth lived her childhood in New York City with her mother's sister, Elizabeth Moffitt (1804-1886), wife of VanRensselaer Terry (1801-1857).

Elizabeth's mother, Sarah Moffitt, remarried to Joseph Scott. Elizabeth never knew her biological father and may have regarded Joseph Scott as her father. Or maybe the person providing the information for the death certificate thought that Joseph Scott was Elizabeth's father.

Elizabeth knew that her biological father was John H Duryea. She provided his name, not the name of Joseph L Scott, when she married Augustus B Palmer in 1885 in Jersey City.

Birth records are best for determining names of parents. Marriage records are good because the two people whose record it is- the marrying couple- provided the information themselves. Death records contain information provided by someone who may not have known the parents of the deceased, making them unreliable without supporting records.

Chasing Charles Luther Across the Globe

Charles Luther is a possible brother of my great great grandfather, Herman Lutter (1860-1924). They were both born in what is now Germany.

Interest in this relation was renewed with a DNA match at Ancestry.com.

Charles Luther may have lived in Newark, New Jersey with Herman in the 1880s. Charles relocated to Chicago, Illinois and lived with Alexander Lutter, who may have been another brother. Alex Lutter witnessed Herman's marriage to Clara Uhl in Newark in 1888.

In Chicago Charles married Theresa Doanow in 1887. That marriage record did not provide the names of parents. (I wrote to the church but have received no response yet.)

Charles and his family moved to Wisconsin and then to Brooklyn, New York. The final census entry I found for him was the 1915 New York State census.

In 1920 federal census for Brooklyn, Charles' wife, Theresa, was remarried to Frederick Brink. 

The New York City marriage index gave 1917 as the year of Theresa's remarriage.

So I searched for a death record for Charles Luther in Brooklyn from 1915 through 1917, but found no match.

Charles' death record may contain the names of his parents, necessary to show the relationship to my branch.

I ordered the marriage application of Theresa Doanow/Luther and Frederick Brink through the New York City Department of Records and Information Services. (The index was made available through actions of Reclaim the Records.)

I'm glad I ordered this record. Theresa Tornow (morphed from Doanow- remember that spelling is inconsistent) divorced from Charles Luther three days before marrying Frederick Brink.

The records sent included a copy of the divorce decree. The copy is not great, but here it is.

The date of death for Charles Luther is not limited to the date of his wife's remarriage. I need to keep searching in Brooklyn and anywhere he lived or his children lived. He may have married again, too, which would be great because his parents should be on such a record.

The family tree now looks like this:

A Marriage Found

For years the union of my fifth great grandparents, Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrill, circa 1816, has eluded researchers- until now.

Thanks to cousin Chris G, we have a record of this marriage. The couple was not married in Middlesex County, New Jersey, as was popularly claimed. They were married in Staten Island/Richmond County, New York, at Saint Andrew's Church, on October 13, 1816.

Chris G found this entry in the transcript of the records (viewable at a Family History Library) of Saint Andrew's Church, Staten Island, New York, which still exists.

Merrills were abundant in Northfield in this time period. The Longs were not. Jonas Long was probably from neighboring Middlesex County, New Jersey. His parentage is still a mystery, but a clue is in the naming of a son Jacob Van Pelt Long.

The Life of Elizabeth Duryea, born 1836

While collecting marriages of Duryeas in New Jersey, I happened upon a record for Elizabeth T Duryea. She remarried to Augustus B Palmer in 1885 in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey.

This explains why Augustus B Palmer is on the monument for Elizabeth's first husband, children, sister, and mother at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens, New York. Elizabeth herself has no inscription and the cemetery found no record of her burial, so her date of death continues to elude me.

Augustus B Palmer was born in Maine around 1843. He probably relocated to New York City in the 1870s. His death in 1891 was reported in The City Record; he joined the police in 1877.

An brief mention in The Evening World newspaper told of Policeman Palmer's death in Maine on April 19, 1891, where he was on sick leave.

Augustus B Palmer also has an inscription on his family's monument in Dover Cemetery in Dover-Foxcroft, Piscataquis County, Maine. His residence, career, and wife in New York City may easily have gone unconnected.

I do not know what became of Elizabeth after the death of Augustus. She does not appear as his widow in the New York City directories.

One year before Augustus' death, Elizabeth was in the 1890 Veterans Schedule at 304 East 125th street in New York City, the same address as the city directories. Closer inspection of her entry shows "Palmer" scribbled next to her name.

Elizabeth's life was not easy.

She was born in 1836 in New York City after the death of her father, John H Duryea. She joined a sister, Catherine Jane. Their mother, Sarah Moffitt, remarried to Joseph Scott.

In 1854, Elizabeth married Joseph Jones in New York City; they adopted the last name Henley. Joseph died during the Civil War as a prisoner in Texas, making her a widow with two children. Any other children had died.

Elizabeth and Joseph had four known children. None had surviving issue. They used the surname Henley.
-Frederick, born about 1855 in Michigan; died 1887 in California.
-Lambert Scott, born about 1858 in Ohio; died in 1861.
-Augustus B, born about 1859 in Ohio; died in 1931.
-Florence May, born about 1863, died in 1864.

I do not know why the children were born outside New York or New Jersey.

After discovering Elizabeth's marriage to Augustus B Palmer, I wonder if there was a prior connection between them that caused her to name a son Augustus B.

Elizabeth's sister, Catherine Jane, first married William Leander, then Harry Abraham Lockwood. These unions produced no known surviving issue. Thus, this branch has extinguished.

Birth Certificates of Adoptees in Pennsylvania

In November of 2017, Pennsylvania began providing adopted persons information from their original, sealed birth certificate.

The disappointment was that the document was a limited transcription and not a copy of the original record, in contrast to the title.

In response to criticism about the limitations of this document, Pennsylvania re-issued the birth records on nicer paper.

The problem here is that the law (2016 Act 127) authorizes release of a "summary" of the original birth certificate and not the original birth certificate. Pennsylvania Department of Health labels the document "Noncertified Copy of Original Birth Record," and not something more accurate such as "Selective Extraction of a Birth Record."

The information available is the date and county (not town) of birth, original name of baby, and names and ages of parents. This information could lead adoptees to find their biological families. But the missing information might be needed if the named parent or parents is not enough. More information increases the chances of success.

The person who kindly supplied me with her "original birth certificate" identified her biological mother shortly before receiving the document. That will be explained in an upcoming post. The biological father has not been identified (yet) through DNA testing and unfortunately was not named in this birth record.

In January of 2017 neighboring New Jersey unsealed birth certificates to adoptees. In contrast to Pennsylvania, New Jersey's document for adoptees is a copy of the actual birth certificate and not an extraction.

For the person who kindly supplied this unsealed New Jersey birth certificate, the biological mother was previously identified in the adoption records of the court, which were not sealed because the adoption was before 1940. The father was identified through DNA testing before the release of this certificate. The names of the parents on this certificate, however, do not match the court records and the interpretations of DNA testing.

Microscopic View of Irish Origins

Some additional insight into the place of origin in Ireland of my Sheehy and Frawley ancestors. We have come a long way from merely stating Ireland.

Bridget Sheehy (1857-1916), my great great grandmother, was baptized in Lurriga (also called Patrickswell), in Limerick in 1857.

The baptismal record of two potential siblings are on the same microfilm roll as Bridget, except that Ancestry.com calls the place Clarina.

My (probable) cousin in Ireland helped clarify for me that my family was actually from Corcamore and that all these places are within a larger area called Clarina. He also assured me that Irish ways of designating and naming places are confusing.

Clarina, Kilkeedy, Pubblebrien, Limerick, Ireland.
Is that how I should write this?

Location of Corcamore within Clarina.
Any Sheehy and Frawley cousins still living there?

Corcamore is only about two square miles. It would be great to find additional records, if any exist.

Wedding Guest Book

Thank you to my aunt for sharing the wedding guest book of my great grandparents, Howard Lutter (1889-1959) and Ethel Laurel "Laura" Winterton (1891-1962).

They were married in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey in 1910.

Witnesses were the bride's parents, William Walling Winterton (1862-1932) and Catherine Butterfoss Dunn (1865-1944).

Front cover

The only guests who signed the book were Howard's mother, Clara Rosalie Uhl (1865-1955), Laura's brother, William Gladstone Winterton (1898-1976), and Miss J Brown. I do not know who this is.

 

Wedding guests (not bridal party)

In later years, a descendant drew on the book during childhood.


Howard and Laura divorced in 1927. Howard remarried to Fiorita Lorenz in 1928. Fiorita was newly divorced from James Winnie. I do not know how or when they met, but Howard lived with Fiorita and her husband as a tenant in Bloomfield. Fiorita testified for Howard in his divorce. Howard purchased the house from Fiorita and James and then resided in it with his two children, Fiorita, and her daughter.

Living DNA Accepting Transfers (For Free)

Earlier this year I tested my autosomal DNA with Living DNA.

This company does not provide relative matching, which is my main focus in testing DNA. Instead, Living DNA provides a detailed ethnicity breakdown concentrated in Great Britain and Ireland.

Interesting, but I have not made much use of these results in my research.

In October, Living DNA began accepting uploads of files from other DNA testing sites. This means that you do not have to send in a specimen.

Living DNA calls this endeavor One Family One World.

Relative matching is a predicted future service, which is great.

While logged into my account, I uploaded my mother's DNA file from 23andMe using this link. (She is deceased, so she cannot test anymore. I have only her DNA computer file to work with.)

I had to wait for "transfer instructions" in an email.

Now we wait until next year for possible relatives to appear for my mother at Living DNA.

Next, I tried my father. I could not upload his file using my account.

You need a separate email address for every file transfer. So I uploaded both parents and that was it. I could create several more email addresses just to upload more people to Living DNA, but that would be onerous.

If Living DNA wants to grow its database of participants, requiring separate emails hinders this goal. But the price is unbeatable.

DNA of Preston Sheehy Descendants at 23andMe

Another Preston/Sheehy cousin tested his DNA at 23andMe.com. K.J. is the father of D.J., who tested four years ago. D.J. was the first relative I identified from my DNA pursuits.

Below is the family tree of the descendants of John Preston (1857-1928) and Bridget Sheehy (1857-1916) who tested at 23andMe.

Below is the chromosome browser view of the shared DNA between K.J. and his three second cousins. Note the wide variation in the amount shared from 195 centimorgans (cM) to 364.

Also important is that the amount of shared DNA drops when we shift from father to son. The amount was not halved; it was quartered. (This is why it is best to test members of the oldest living generation whenever possible.)

23andMe has an "In Common With" feature. This list shows DNA testers who match you and a target person. In the scenario below, I looked for relatives in common with my mother and K.J. Sharing the same DNA indicates that the DNA tester is likely from their shared Preston/Sheehy lines. One DNA tester, R.S., could be a viable lead.

R.S. shares a segment of DNA with the oldest generation of Preston/Sheehy descendants. The chromosome browser reveals that my mother shares the longest segment and this segment broke in the middle. My uncle received one piece while K.J. and my mother's first cousin received the other piece.

R.S. has no family tree offered through 23andMe. This is a common problem with matches at 23andMe- the lack of genealogical information and interest.


The other observation to garnish from this information is that the amount of shared DNA skews greatly beyond the parent - child relationship. In groups on FaceBook, I often see people trying to determine generations or half relationships based on the amount of shared DNA of people well beyond a sibling relationship. You simply cannot do this based on shared DNA alone.

Please see the latest Shared Centimorgan Project by Blaine Bettinger for the ranges of DNA shared by relatives up to a fourth cousin. The numbers found in my cousin comparisons fall within these expected amounts.

The Baptism of Bridget Sheehy in 1857 in Limerick, Ireland

Someone from Ireland (possibly a cousin) wrote to me about my Sheehy and Frawley ancestors of County Limerick. He had seen my blog post about trying to connect my second great grandmother, Bridget Sheehey (1857-1916), to a Sheehy family living in Dutchess County, New York, USA.

He had located the baptism record of Bridget, daughter of Edmund Sheehy and Bridget Frawley, on the microfilm for Lurriga (also called Patrickswell), in Limerick. The date was January 4, 1857. According to the death certificate of my Bridget, her parents were Edmund (or Edward?) Sheehey and Bridget Frawley of Ireland.

Bridget, daughter of Edmund Sheehy and Bridget Frawley, baptized January 4, 1857.
Sponsors were Timothy Sheehy and Bridget Flannery (more possible relatives).

You can view these church records for free through the National Library of Ireland. The site is also an excellent resource for detailed maps of divisions within the counties.

Can I finally fit Bridget into this family?
Created in Family Tree Maker 2017

Bridget Sheehy does not show up in Ancestry.com's index for this microfilm. However, Margaret and Ellen, possible sisters of Bridget, do show up in the index. But Ancestry.com calls this place "Clarina," not Lurriga or Patrickswell.

So I continued forward on the roll (online) from Bridget in the year 1857 to the year 1864 and found the entry for Margaret. Same place, Lurriga, same name, Sheehy. Another clue that there is a connection.

Margaret Sheehy baptized November 13, 1864 in Lurriga, Limerick, Ireland.
Sponsors were John Galvey (?) and Margaret Cosgrove.

Clarina is not listed as an alternate name for Lurriga. It could be. (Researching old New Jersey place names is hard enough.) But I was looking for Bridget in Clarina and not finding either when Bridget was indeed baptized in the same location as her supposed sisters near the birth date I have for her.


Neighboring parishes may also have records on the family, if the records still exist (another roadblock in Irish research).

Note: "Sheehy" and "Sheehey" are used interchangeably here.

Death Certificate Provides Range of Dates for Death

Andrew Newcomb met a sad death in the winter of 1928-1929. He became lost and froze to death. He was missing for over five weeks.

Andrew and my third grand aunt, Emma Newcomb (1855-1890) had at least four children before she died. They lived in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey. After Emma's death, Andrew married Annie McKee in Brooklyn in 1892 and they resided in New York.

I previously wrote about Andrew when the lack of a specific date of death was brought to my attention via Find A Grave.

Ironically, Emma's date of death is also questionable.

Andrew's tombstone reads 1851-1929.

Green Grove Cemetery, Keyport, Monmouth County, New Jersey

Newspaper accounts explained that Andrew left home from Westbury on Long Island, New York in December. His body was found in January of 1929 in Laurence Harbor, Middlesex County, New Jersey. He may have been trying to visit family in nearby Keyport or Matawan, Monmouth County.

The next piece of evidence needed was Andrew's death certificate from the New Jersey State Archives.

Madison in Middlesex County is now called Old Bridge.
(Not to be confused with Madison in Morris County.)

The death certificate explains, "left home Dec 15, 1928 and found Jan 21, 1929."
"Left home Dec 15, 1928 found in the woods Jan 21, 1929. Died from exposure."

This is the (modern-day) map of Andrew Newcomb's starting and ending points. This is not an easy trip to make today because of traffic.

Andrew may have been traveling by train and got off at the wrong stop, Laurence Harbor, which is near his probable destination of Keyport or Matawan. He may have become disoriented. When he left home on December 15th, this time of year is the least amount of daylight. If he did not have a place to stay by early darkness, he was left to the elements.


I have two questions.

First, how would someone likely travel from Long Island to the coastline of the Raritan Bay in the late 1920s? Would Andrew have taken a train and then a boat? Was he dropped off at the wrong port? Or could he have taken a train through the shore points and exited at the wrong stop? (See this link for old maps of the area, including the train routes.)


Second, what date of death is to be used in a situation like this, when the person was missing for over five weeks? The date the body was found? He did not die that day- he was already frozen. The time frame overlaps two calendar years, so neither year is definitely the year of death.