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Commencing our Lutge voyage of discovery - Peter Benson Lutge died on 17 May 1890

We've set up this space to connect with Lutge descendants in Australia - to share stories and develop our understanding of the family in Australia and our Danish and Irish roots. Peter Benson Lutge was born on 15 March 1837 on Aabenraa, Aabenraa-Sonderborg, Denmark.  Peter was the oldest of the eight children of Johann Friedrich Lutge (Lytge or Lutje) and Maria Cathrina Jensen (Jensdr).  The various spellings demonstrate how difficult this research can be!  Equally, there can be absolute gems fall into you lap like this page from the 1855 Denmark Census. https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10258-1907202-/peter-b-lutge-in-1855-denmark-census?indId=individual-382609941-2000217&s=382609941 Dated 4 August 1855, Peter Benson, aged 17, is living at Vaegterplads in Aabenraa with his father, Johann Friedrich (47), his mother, Maria Cathrina (45) and his 2 younger brothers and 5 younger sisters - Cathrina Dorothea (16), Hans Jensen (14), Johann Friedrich (12)
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Able Seaman Godfrey Frederick Callaghan (1906 to 1942)

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As this chart shows, my relationship to Godfrey Frederick Callaghan is distant and by marriage. He's the great nephew of the wife of my great-granduncle, Patrick (Paddy) Lutge.  So why am I remembering Godfrey for Anzac Day 2022? He was "lost" to the Callaghan family until a few months ago when I was contacted by Lynette, the wife of Godfrey's first cousin once removed.  Another family history enthusiast, Lynette had found the image below amongst the glass photonegative in the William Joseph Macpherson Collection at the State Library of New South Wales.  Fifth from the left is my great-uncle, Paddy, with his future wife, Jessie (Theresa) Samora, to his left and brother, Denis (Dinny) Lutge, to his right.  Theresa is sitting next to her sister, Emily Samora. Her brother, Francis Samora, is on the extreme left. Between Emily and Francis is Thomas Callaghan, Emily's future husband.  Godfrey Callaghan is the grandson of Emily and Thomas. His mother, Gladys Muriel Cal
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12 November 2021: The centenary of the marriage of Kelvin Walter Lutge and Ethel Lillian Webb-Wagg

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Kel and Ethel are my maternal grandparents. Known as Papa and Grandma to their five grandchildren, I was eleven when Kel died. Ethel died twenty five years later. They lived "just around the corner" at 82 Gerard Street Cremorne. We spent a lot of time together. They were wonderful grandparents and clearly loved each other dearly.  So today we remember their marriage a century ago at their local church, St Peter's Anglican Church Cremorne. The church looks very much like it did on 12 November 1921 when Kel and Ethel made their way there. Building of the parish hall, to the left, did not commence until the following year. This was the local church for the Lutge and Webb Wagg families after it opened in 1909. The Lutge's lived 700m away at 84 Gerard Street and it was a further 800m to the Webb-Wagg home at 14 Bray Street Mosman. Kel was a few days short of his twenty-third birthday. As Ethel was only twenty, her father gave permission for her marriage. She'd spent th
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Was "Matilda Armstrong" my most elusive ancestor?

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"Matilda" Here's my maternal great-grandmother "Matilda Armstrong". Well that's what Mum's written on the back of the photo. We often talked about Matilda's husband, John Henry Lutge, drowning in the bombora off Grotto Point in Middle Harbour when Mum was a baby. Mum couldn't remember meeting her paternal grandmother.  In about 1905, John Henry and Matilda built their family home on a large block of land in Cremorne. Within 20 years, the land was subdivided and sections resumed for roads. By 1925, their home sat on a "quarter acre block" and Mum's parents were building next door. So Mum grew up living next door to the house that had been the home of her paternal grandparent. But what had happened to her grandmother?  Mum knew her Dad had siblings. She'd remark how strange it was that she never met her paternal first cousins even the one who shared her name, Beryl Lutge. Yet Mum grew up close to her father's uncles, aunts an
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150 years since the death of our many times great grandmother - Maria Lutge (nee Jensen)

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Maria Lutge (nee Jensen) is the mother of our Australian patriarch, Peter Benson Lutge.  She's my great, great, great grandmother! The 1855 Danish Census shows that Maria was born about 1810.  She seems to have lived her life in the small southern Danish town of Aabenraa.  You can read about the family's life  HERE.   In 2018, I visited our Danish town.  You can read about my visit  HERE. On 11 November 1835, Maria married Johann Friedrich Lutge in the local church.  You can still pick out their names from the church register even though they're in Danish! Maria and Johann lived in one of the homes in this small town square where they raised eight children.  It's about 300m from their local church. When Maria died on 9 July 1870, her oldest child, Peter Benson, was living in Australia.  This is shown on her death registration.  There are some differences between the ages of the children shown in this document and my research which is based on
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Enid Purcell Taylor (nee Lutge) - born on this day 100 years ago!

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Enid Purcell Taylor (nee Lutge) Enid was the oldest of the four children of Clifford and Lilian Lutge.  She was born on 19 June 1920 in Chatswood NSW Australia.   On 2 February 1946, she married Ronald Alfred Taylor at Chatswood.   Enid and Ronald had one child, Kenneth Norman Taylor.  He was born in 1947 in Sydney.  Enid died on 27 May 2008 in Sydney.  She's interred at Northern Suburbs Crematorium.   With the aid of enhancement and colourisation offered by MyHeritage.com, here's an enhancement of the beautiful portrait shared by Melynda, her granddaughter, on ancestry.com.  
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Finally DNA evidence that Mary Ann and Hannah Maria are the children of Peter and Mary Lutge

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Here's an article that's just been published in Descent, The Journal of the Society of Australian Genealogists, where I detail recent AncestryDNA matches that evidence Mary Ann (born about 1869) and Hanna Maria (born about 1872) are the children of Peter Benson Lutge and Mary Bonner.   The transcript is also attached.   If you're interested in taking an AncestryDNA test to further our Lutge research, please contact me at chrisw9953@gmail.com. We hear the mantra that “genetic genealogy is only one of the tools of family historians”…but what a powerful tool it can be!  With a well researched family tree and understanding where your DNA matches fit within that tree, you can answer some niggling questions.  Here’s a recent breakthrough that I’ve made… One reason for starting my family history journey was to find out more about the people in these pictures which are over 120 years old.  The first is my great-grandfather, John Henry Lutge, who was
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Kelvin and Helene Lutge and Matilda, their mother....

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I've know this photo of my grandparents' wedding my entire life.  It's now amongst a group of family photos on the wall in my hallway.  Kelvin Walter Lutge and Ethel Lillian Webb-Wagg were married on 12 November 1921 at St Peter's Anglican Church in Gerard Street Cremorne.  Here's a copy of the church register. I attended an afternoon of organ music at St Peter's yesterday.  The church is only 1.5km from my home.  The last time I was in the church was 30 years ago for my grandmother's funeral. Knowing my family's association with the church after it opened in 1911, I was home to refresh my memory! My great uncles', Bob and Jack Webb Wagg, baptisms in February 1912 commenced the run of "family events" in the church. Until this  morning, I'd never connected the dots to see that my grandmother's attendant was Helene Lutge, Kelvin's sister, and my grandfather's attendant was Harry Webb-Wagg, my grandmother's
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