150 years today since our many times great-grandfather, Peter Benson Lutge, was naturalised!


Peter Benson Lutge and his wife, Mary Bonner, founded our Lutge family in Australia with their marriage in 1862 at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney.  Family history research brings strange synchronicity at times!  Yesterday was 130 years since the death of Mary and today's 150 years since Peter Benson's naturalisation.  We are so fortunate to have Peter Benson's signature on his oath of naturalisation and personal details on his certificate of naturalisation.



I've written many times of my search for the birth or baptismal registration for eight of the ten children of Peter Benson and Mary.  I've only located birth registrations for John Henry and Peter Benson (junior).  While the quest continues, there's been a breakthrough!!!

John Henry Lutge, the oldest of Peter and Mary's children, is my great-grandfather.  I've had AncestryDNA matches with other descendants of John Henry and his wife, Matilda.  Recently, we've had AncestryDNA matches with Robyn, the great-granddaughter of Mary Ann Lutge and her husband William Ritchie, and Shah, 2nd great-granddaughter of Hannah Maria Lutge and her husband Charles Ford.  

No birth for baptismal registrations but the genetic link has been proved....

Denis (Dinny) Lutge is the only other child to have living descendants.  Please contact me if you would be prepared to take an AncestryDNA test to further explore the Lutge/Bonner genetic links.


You can read more about Peter Benson and Mary in these blogs-

http://lutgeaustralia.blogspot.com/2017/05/commencing-our-lutge-voyage-of.html

http://lutgeaustralia.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-voyage-continues-with-mary-lutge.html

http://lutgeaustralia.blogspot.com/2017/09/29-august-2017-trip-to-gore-hill.html

http://lutgeaustralia.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-field-trip-to-aabenraa-denmark-home.html





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

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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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The voyage continues with Mary Lutge (nee Bonner) - Peter's wife

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Having spent last Thursday at a study course on Irish records, it's a good time to share my findings to date about our matriarch, Mary Bonner.  Again there are many variations to the spelling of the name including Bonnor, Boner and Bonar.  Maybe we should just call her Mary B! Over the last year, I've been working with our Lutge cousin, Karen, on our family story.  We had Mary B's marriage and death registrations.  Based on these, we thought that Mary B was born in the late 1840s in County Donegal, Ireland and came to Australia in the early 1860s.  Our next stage was to find out about Mary B's birth family and voyage to Australia. A few weeks ago, we were sitting in a coffee shop, laptop between us and looking at the new information AncestryDNA provides called "Genetic Communities".  We've both tested with AncestryDNA and the strongest "Genetic Community" I belong to is the one formed around Donegal highlighting Mary B.  
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Denis (Dinny) Lutge (1879 to 1953) - The eighth child of Peter Benson and Mary Lutge

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Denis (Dinny) is the most well known of our Lutge family.  There's even a "wikipedia" entry which gives Dinny's birth date as 26 November 1879.  All sorts of searching of the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and still no success in finding a birth registration.  So, the search continues.... Dinny was the eighth child of Peter Benson and Mary Lutge.  He moved to the Mosman area with the family in the mid 1880s.  While Dinny worked as a stevedore in his early life, he commenced his rugby union career with the Mosman Junior in 1893.  We can see how young he is in this picture where he is second from the right in the second row (behind the fellow with the cap).  Three of his brothers are in the bottom row -  far left is Bob Lutge, second from left is Peter Lutge, second from right is Paddy Lutge. Between 1901 and 1907, Dinny played rugby union for the Northern Suburbs Club.  He made his international debut as a lock-forward in the first rugby un
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