Genealogy Chat

Hello Anyone got any tips on how I can find out more about my ancestor's mystery marriage? Following Banns, on 17th March 1898 Rose Ernestine GAU married Karl Joseph von ARNOLD in St Mary le Strand. She was 20 and he was 41. He says he is a detective, a bachelor, father deceased and no address except St Thomas Lambeth. She was not of full age but the marriage was witnessed by both her parents and two others called E Anderson and F Cook (names I don't recognise). In the 1901 census she is back living with her mum and described as single and not a widow .. and at the time of her mum's death she was still living at home. Where did he go? I can't find evidence of him in 1901, although perhaps he'd scarpered somewhere in Europe as the name sounds Austrian. Was he 'done in?', did he dupe her? Would there be records of a divorce if I don't have a date to go on, just after March 1898 and before the census? Grateful for any advice. A

Perhaps he went back to his native country?

Hiya - Herr Von Arnold sounds a real con-artist - the bride was 20 and the groom 41!!! The poor girl sounds to me as if she was completely taken in and probably lived to regret the day she met Herr Von Arnold, detective. I have a similar problem in my own family where information was obviously "fed" to a bride at the time of the wedding, and low and behold none of it stands up to scrutiny. Sorry to be pessimistic but it does sound to me a bit of a "con" and con artists go back a long long way. We are such gullible creatures us females aren't we? Jacqui ps I bet he was good looking!!!

I hope he was good looking or it wouldn't make sense at all! I have sent an email to Police Orders, a website that holds records of police in the Met, in the slim hope that he was genuine ... but I don't hold out much hope. A