Ruth Noga Cacace

Life

References for this account: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Work and occupation

• operator, bag company — 1950

  [RECORD] 40 — Operator — Bag Co.

  Citation: 1950 census, Brooklyn ED 24-1062, sheet 73 [2]

Where they lived

• 1950: Brooklyn, New York City, New York
• 1920: Brooklyn, New York City, New York

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. 4 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

• [CONTROLLED NEGATIVE] **Her birth record has not been found under either surname.** She was born in 1908, six years before her parents married, so it was searched under **Mayer** as well as Noga in the New York City births to 1909; none of the Ruth Mayers returned has parents matching Julius Noga and Lottie Florence Mayer. Her birth certificate remains the document that would name her mother's parents outright.
• [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. Her mother was **Florence Meyer**. If the family's Ashkenazi ancestry runs anywhere, this is the likeliest line, and Ruth's own birth certificate would name her mother's parents.
• **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.
• Obtain original birth, death and marriage records and identify her maiden surname and parents; the exact death date remains compiled.
• Find her burial record; Carmine's memorial names her as spouse, but finding 62 did not capture a cemetery or plot for Ruth.
• [ANSWERED] Ruth's maiden surname was Noga. It had been recorded as unknown and was listed as the single most useful outstanding question on this side of the family; her 1927 Brooklyn marriage record supplies it.
• [PROBABLE] John Noga and Florence Meyer appear on the marriage record without a stated relationship. They are very probably Ruth's parents — a Noga father fits her maiden name and Meyer would be her mother's maiden surname — but the index does not label them, and they could in principle be witnesses. The certificate itself would settle it. If they are her parents, Ruth was not Italian at all: Noga is a Polish surname and Meyer a German one, which would make this a mixed marriage in 1927 Brooklyn.
• The marriage record makes Ruth 17 in February 1927, implying birth about 1909-10, while her memorial and the family both give 9 August 1908, which would make her 18. A year's discrepancy in a stated age is ordinary and neither reading is preferred here.
• The 1930 census confirms Ruth was born in New York, which fits a Noga/Meyer parentage of immigrant stock rather than an Italian one. Her age there, 21 in 1930, again implies about 1908–09.
• Ruth was living as a niece in someone else's household in 1920, aged twelve. The head of that household has not been identified — the surname may be Noga, if the uncle was her father's brother, or something else entirely if the aunt was her mother's sister. Brooklyn AD 10, ED 558, household 101, sheet 6A: reading the whole page would name the family that raised her, and is the next step.
• The 1920 census gives both of Ruth's parents as born in New York. If John Noga and Florence Meyer are indeed her parents, they were American-born, and the Noga and Meyer immigrations belong to the generation before them — Polish and German respectively, on the surnames.
• [CANDIDATE REJECTED] A John Noga of Brooklyn, born about 1885 in the United States to Charles Noga and Agnes Kluska — both born in Poland — died on 16 September 1940 and looked a promising match for Ruth's father: the right name, the right place, and American-born as the census requires. He is rejected. His death record gives his marital status as **single** and his occupation as longshoreman. A man who never married is not the John Noga who fathered Ruth. Recorded here so the candidate is not picked up again and quietly attached.
• Her age of 17 at marriage on 28 February 1927 implies a birth about 1909-10, against the 9 August 1908 this archive holds from tree and compiled profiles. The difference is small and both stand.
• [HYPOTHESIS TESTED AND REJECTED, 7 August 2026] The one Noga family in Brooklyn — Charles Noga and Agnes, both German-born, of Assembly District 8 — has a son Joseph who was keeping his own house in 1920. If Ruth's uncle had been a Noga, Joseph was the obvious candidate. **He is not:** his household is Assembly District 3, ED 178, household 116, and Ruth is in Assembly District 10, ED 558, household 101 — a different part of Brooklyn altogether. **Which points the search the other way:** if the aunt was not a Noga she was very probably a **Meyer**, her mother's sister, and the family that raised Ruth should be looked for under that name.
• [FATHER RE-IDENTIFIED] The 1915 state census names her father as **Julius E. Noga**, not the *John* Noga of her 1927 marriage record. Julius was a son of Charles Noga and Agnes of Brooklyn Ward 8 — the family this archive had recorded as context and explicitly *not* as kin, after a John Noga from it was tested and rejected for having died single. The census is the better evidence: it was taken while she was six and living in the house. **Her 1920 'niece' household is now very likely one of Julius's five siblings** — Frank, Charles, John, Anna or Joseph.
• [THE AUNT IS ALMOST CERTAINLY A MEYER] Every known Noga of her father's generation was enumerated in **Brooklyn Assembly District 3** in 1920 — Charles and Agnes with Julius, Frank, John and Anna in ED 171, and Joseph keeping his own house in ED 178. **Ruth was in Assembly District 10, ED 558.** She was not with any of them. If she was a niece and not a Noga's niece, she was her **mother's** sister's — so the household that raised her should be hunted under **Meyer**, and Florence's sisters are the people to find.

References

1. [1] Find a Grave memorial 292938423 for Ruth CacaceBack to citation 1a Back to citation 1b
2. [2] 1950 census, Brooklyn ED 24-1062, sheet 73Back to citation 2a Back to citation 2b Back to citation 2c
3. [3] AncientFaces compiled profile for Ruth CacaceBack to citation 3
4. [4] Family-supplied correction to Fitzgerald and Cacace branch structureBack to citation 4
5. [5] Cacace branch search-scope correctionBack to citation 5
6. [6] Carmine Cacace and Ruth Noga marriage, Brooklyn, 28 February 1927Back to citation 6
7. [7] Ruth Cacace memorial, Pinelawn Memorial ParkBack to citation 7
8. [8] Ruth Noga in the 1920 census, Brooklyn Assembly District 10Back to citation 8
9. [9] Julius E. Noga household, 1915 New York State census, BrooklynBack to citation 9
10. [10] Charles Noga household, 1920 United States census, Brooklyn Assembly District 3Back to citation 10
11. [11] Marriage of Julius Edward Noga and Lottie Florence Mayer, Manhattan, 13 October 1914Back to citation 11
12. [12] Carmine Cacace household, 1940 census, Brooklyn Assembly District 8Back to citation 12

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