John Mayer

Life

References for this account: [1][2][3]

Where they lived

Use the place list first. The map below is optional.

The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 1 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

• Whether this family was Jewish. Mayer is a name carried by both German Jewish and German Christian families, and his wife's name, Gerken, is Northwest German and not typically Jewish. This matters because his line was the leading candidate for the family's Ashkenazi ancestry — see finding 122. His daughter's birth record of 1890, or his marriage, would give his birthplace and probably answer it.
• His birth, his origins and his death are all unknown. Every record naming him is a record about his daughter.
• His marriage to Annie Gerken, in New York some time in the 1880s.
• Note without reading anything into it: Gina Cacace descends from Mayers on both sides — from this John Mayer on her father's, and from Michael Mayer of Manhattan on her mother's. Mayer is among the commonest German surnames and nothing connects them.
• [CANDIDATE, NOT ATTACHED] A John C Meyer married an Anna M C Gerken at Manhattan on 4 November 1872; his own parents are given as John C Meyer and Maria Luhning. The names fit and the surname pairing is uncommon. Against it, an 1872 marriage would make Lottie, born 1890, a child of eighteen years into the marriage — possible, and not what one would expect. Recorded in the rolodex rather than attached.
• [NEGATIVE, CONTROLLED — NOT MARRIED IN NEW YORK CITY] Tested on 21 August 2026 against the New York City marriage index by intersecting both spouses' rows on county, certificate number and year. No certificate joins them. Two controls make the zero usable: the surname alone returns hundreds of rows, so the query works; and the GGG transcription of every record and the City's index of digitised records return identical counts, so this is a real absence and not a scanning gap. Within the index's coverage — five boroughs, 1866-1937 — they married somewhere else. Finding 158.
• [THE DEATH INDEX CANNOT REACH THIS PERSON, AND HERE IS WHY] `nycvitals sweep` prunes same-name rows using the index's age column, which needs a birth year to compare against. This page has none, so the age column is inert and the sweep returns a list that cannot be shortened — seventeen candidates for Susan Moore, five for Stephen Moore, hundreds for John Mayer. Nothing has been attached. Reaching this person needs a parent-naming document — a marriage, birth or death certificate belonging to one of their children — not another index sweep. Finding 161.

References

1. [1] Marriage of Julius Edward Noga and Lottie Florence Mayer, Manhattan, 13 October 1914Back to citation 1
2. [2] NYC marriage index, 1866-1937 — controlled sweep of twelve archive couples, 21 August 2026Back to citation 2
3. [3] NYC death index — controlled negatives for Gina Cacace's frontier ancestors, 21 August 2026Back to citation 3

See also

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