How frustrating!

[Nell]

PLEASE SEE MY LATEST POST - no. 8!!!
I'm trying to disentangle various brothers/sisters marriages.

To wit: Eve Sellers/Sellars married Charles Ehn
Amelia Sellers married William Olmstead Marsden
Matilda Sellers married Lewis Cottingham Marsden
a Sarah Matilda Marsden (widow) married William Edward Ehn
Amelia Marsden married Charles Ehn

I've just been looking at the marriages online on ancestry. I'd assumed that Amelia Marsden who married Charles Ehn was William Olmstead Marsden's widow. Amelia Sellars witnessed Charles Ehn's marriage to her sister Eve, and Amelia Marsden and Charles Ehn were witnesses at Lewis and Matilda's wedding.

But the marriage of Charles Ehn and Amelia Marsden states they are bachelor and spinster [my correction]. I tried to look at Charles' first marriage again to see if his signature matches 2nd marriage and got "Image Processing Error" Arrgh!

Can anyone check and see if they think the sigs are the same?

[Nell]

Oh dear! Even more frustrating! Charles and Amelia's signatures look different on the certs - in fact Amelia's looks like its obviously a different hand. But its too much of a coincidence that they aren't the same people, surely? I can't find any other Charles Ehns about, its a very rare name.

[Mary from Italy]

I've just had a look too, and the two Charles Ehn signatures do look very different. There again, there's a 17-year gap between the two marriages.

However, it looks as though Amelia Sallers signed in 1821 and Amelia Marsden made her mark in 1834, so unlikely to be the same person.

[Mary from Italy]

I see from the IGI that Lewis Cottingham Marsden and William Holmsted Marsden were brothers; there's also a sister Sarah, but there doesn't seem to be a sister Amelia.

[Nell]

No, there isn't. Lewis and William's sister Sarah married twice. There was also an Elizabeth, Priscilla (ex's gt x 3 grandmother) and Jane.

It's a right old tangle. Priscilla married James Robins, who never appears on censuses, though he's on his 12 children's baptisms and took out fire insurance as well as appearing as a witness at the trial for theft of his son William. In 1841 Priscilla is missing too, on a bit of the census that didn't survive.
But I've got James and Priscilla's daughter Priscilla jnr staying with a Charles Marsden and James & Pris's daughter Jane staying with a Frederick Marsden in 1841. Later, when Jane Robins married, Charles was a witness. But I don't know how Charles and Frederick fit in with Priscilla!

[Mary from Italy]

But the marriage of Charles Ehn and Amelia Marsden states they are bachelor and widow.

By the way, it says bachelor and spinster, but I guess that was a typo.

[Nell]

My error - I was expecting Amelia to be a widow. I'm so confused and tired I don't know what I'm doing!

[Nell]

Argh!

Just found that the Sarah Matilda Sellers who I thought married William Edward Ehn in 1830 was buried in 1799!!!

Checked the marriage again and find it was Sarah Matilda Marsden, a widow, who married William. So who was Sarah Matilda Marsden married to before William? And was she previously Sarah Matilda Sellers?

Brain is going into meltdown now.

Let's see if I can sort this out chronologically and maybe logically too!

Firstly, a quartet of Sellers girls:

31 Oct 1795 baptism of Sarah Matilda Sellers, daur of George & Elizabeth, at St. Andrew Holborn
26 Sep 1798 baptism of Eve Sellers, daur of George & Elizabeth, at St Andrew Holborn
09 Mar 1801 baptism of Amelia Sellers, daur of George & Elizabeth, at St Andrew Holborn
25 Jan 1803 baptism of Matilda Sellers daur of George & Elizabeth, at St Andrew Holborn

a death: Sarah Matilda Sellers 11 Jun 1799 aged 4 St James Clerkenwell

next some tangled marriages and intermarriages and remarriages:

17 Jun 1817 Charles Ehn married Eve Sellars at St. Andrew Holborn witnesses [illeg] Ehn, Amelia Sellars, Henry Ehn
15 Oct 1821 William Olmstead Marsden married Amelia Sallers at St. Giles Cripplegate. Witnesses Martild? Matilda? illegible, looks like Oultons? & J. Barlow
30 Jul 1823 Lewis Cottingham Marsden married Matilda Sellars at St Giles Cripplegate. Witnesses Charles Ehn & Amelia Marsden
27 Jul 1830 William Edward Ehn married Sarah Matilda Marsden, a widow at St. Mary le Bow. Witnesses Charles Ehn & Amelia Ehn
8 May 1834 Charles Ehn bachelor married Amelia Marsden spinster at St Mary Whitechapel. Witnesses Daniell & Jana Matthias

9 Nov 1829 burial of Lewis [Cottingham] Marsden at St Luke, Old Street

I know that Charles Ehn and William Edward Ehn were brothers, both baptised at St Andrew Holborn

I know that Lewis Cottingham Marsden and William Olmstead [shd be Holmstead] Marsden were brothers, both born Colchester, Essex.

I'm trying to sort out the females.
I think Amelia Sellers married first William Marsden and then Charles Ehn. I know she and Charles say they are single, but I think they might be lying to avoid problems with the Deceased Sister's Marriage Act.
Is the Sarah Matilda Marsden who marries William Ehn really Matilda Marsden, widow of Lewis Marsden? This would be possible as the marriage is the year following Lewis' death and in 1841 William Ehn & Matilda Ehn are with 2 children with same ages and first names as Matilda & Lewis Marsden's sons, except they are called Ehn.
Can anyone see any daylight here?

[Asa]

"Is the Sarah Matilda Marsden who marries William Ehn really Matilda Marsden, widow of Lewis Marsden? This would be possible as the marriage is the year following Lewis' death and in 1841 William Ehn & Matilda Ehn are with 2 children with same ages and first names as Matilda & Lewis Marsden's sons, except they are called Ehn."


Looking around, Nell, I don't see who else she could be - it fits quite neatly doesn't it? I don't think her adding and dropping the Sarah is much of a problem

[Asa]

The last child (of William and Matilda Ehn) is born around 1842 isn't she?

[Nell]

Yes, thanks so much Asa.

This lot are a real tangle and I don't know why I keep bothering with them. The link is that Lewis and William Marsden are brothers to Priscilla Marsden, my ex's gt x 3 grandmother. But I'm drawn to them like a moth to a flame!

Glad to have your backing!

[Asa]

We don't like being beaten in this game do we :-)

[Nell]

No, we'll keep going till we get it sorted!