Charles Noga

Life

References for this account: [1][2]

Where they lived

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The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 3 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.

Historical context

These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.

What we still don't know

• [A DNA TEST IN THE DIRECT FAMILY BEARS ON THIS] An autosomal test taken by a living descendant shows a small but unambiguous **Ashkenazi Jewish** component, reported as eastern European. No such ancestry is documented anywhere in this archive. Until August 2026 the archive believed its Jewish line ran through Samuel Selig and Gussie Nathanson — and finding 117 removed that family entirely, having shown they were attached through the wrong Florence. **The Jewish ancestry is real; the paper trail for it is missing.** This page is one of a small number that could carry it. Percentages and the test itself are deliberately not published here. Noga is a Polish surname and the family is recorded as German — a combination that fits the Prussian partition of Poland, and equally fits a family that moved west through German ports from further east. The passenger list for 1875 would name the town.
• **Where the Nogas actually came from is not settled, and the census answer may mislead.** Charles Noga is recorded as born in **Germany** about 1852 and as arriving in **1875**, with his two eldest sons born in **Michigan** in 1877 and 1879. But **Noga is a Polish surname**, not a German one — it is the Polish word for *leg* — and between 1871 and 1918 a great part of Poland was inside the German Empire. A Pole from Posen, Silesia or West Prussia would be entered as German by any American enumerator, and would have said German himself. So 'Germany' here is a statement about a passport, not about a people. **The distinction matters**: it decides whether this line runs back to a German parish register or a Polish one, and they are different archives in different languages. A passenger list for 1875, or a naturalisation, would name the town and end it.
• Their own births, marriage and deaths. A death record for either would give a maiden name for Agnes and the couple's origins — the censuses say only Germany, which for this period often means Prussian Poland.
• The other five children — Frank, Charles, John, Anna and Joseph — are Ruth's aunts and uncles and are not yet entered. **One of them is very probably the aunt or uncle Ruth was living with as a *niece* in 1920.**
• [CONTROLLED NEGATIVE, WITH ONE CRUMB] No arrival record and no naturalisation found for 1875, and no marriage of a Noga to a Kelly anywhere in the 1870s — so **Agnes Kelly's marriage is not indexed** and the town he came from is still unknown. What the search did turn up: he is in **Brooklyn city directories from 1885 to 1899**, entered as *Chas Noga* and, in 1885–86, as **Carl Noga** — the German form of his name, which is a small point in favour of the German reading over the Polish one, and no more than that. The directory index carries a name, a year and a borough, and no address.

References

1. [1] Julius E. Noga in the Charles Noga household, 1910 and 1920 censuses, BrooklynBack to citation 1
2. [2] Charles Noga household, 1920 United States census, Brooklyn Assembly District 3Back to citation 2

See also

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