Jerome Mark Jaeger was born August 7, 1900, in New Jersey, the son of Otto and Helen Jaeger, both German immigrants. He had an older brother, Otto Oscar, born in 1899. The father, Otto, and later brother Otto, both worked as a butchers.
During WWI, in 1918 Jerome registered for the draft, and being barely 18 years old, he gave his occupation as "school." The family was then living on Mulberry Street in Newark, New Jersey. Jerome was described as, "medium height, medium build, with dark eyes and dark hair."
On December 29, 1931 Jerome married Juliette Hayo in Queens, New York. Juliette was born June 17, 1903 in Manhattan, New York, the daughter of Gustave Wilhelm and Juliette Hayo. She had two sisters, Lorette and Elsie. Her parents were also immigrants, the father from Germany, and the mother from France.
Jerome is listed twice on the 1930 census, on April 2, 1930 he was listed as living with his parents and his already widowed brother- Otto, on North 12th Street in Newark, New Jersey. His marital status was given as "divorced", with his first marriage occuring at age 25, and he was working as a music teacher. On April 21, 1930, Jerome was listed as the husband of Juliette Jaeger, living at Central Park West in Manhattan, working as a musician, and the father of a daughter, Juliette born February 28 of that same year.
Juliette's father, Gustave Hayo, died in 1934, survived by his wife, Juliette, and three daughters: "Juliette Jaeger, Lorette Hayo and Elsie Stegeland."
In 1940 Jerome and Juliette were living on West 162nd Street in Manhattan with her widowed mother, Juliette, her sister Lorette, and her husband, Jacques L'Homme. Jerome is by now working as a butcher in a meat market, following in his father and brother's occupational footsteps.
Jerome was last living in Asbury Park, New Jersey prior to his death. Jerome Mark Jaeger died November 5, 1981, aged 82, at Bellevue Hospital Center, and was buried on Hart Island.
Sources: U.S. Social Security Death Index; U.S. WWI Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918; New York, New York, Marriage Index, 1866-1937; 1930 and 1940 U.S. Federal Censuses; Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, and Death Announcements, 1851-2003 (Gustave Hayo).