Monday, February 7, 2011

Figuring out which man married which woman: Elizabeth Jarrald, cared for Bram Stoker's baby, 1881

The clues are scarce. In 1881, a widow named Elizabeth Jarrald was listed as Nurse in the Bram Stoker household. No place of birth was given, just an age, 30.

I posted last time about going through the index of deaths, and the index of marriages from 1881 backwards, one year at a time, looking for a man named Jarrald (or similar), who married a lady named Elizabeth and then died before the 1881 census.

My best guess: Charles Jarrald.

The problem is that in the marriage index, there are two possible wives for Charles Jarrald (married in Q3, Strand, London):
Emma Bloom
Elizabeth Trott.

The other husband on the same page of the register is William Charles Randall.

I had no luck finding Charles Jarrald and a wife named Elizabeth in the 1871 census. Why?

Charles Jarrald, spelled Jarrold in this case, age 22, married, was a Servant and was enumerated at his employer's house, with the other servants, not with his family. He was born in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.

The age matches; he would have been about two years older than Elizabeth the widow Nurse.

One family tree differs: what is their proof?

Here is an example of something a professional researcher working for a client would definitely look carefully at.

There is a family tree online indicating that Charles married Emma Bloom, not Elizabeth Trott. The only source shown online is the same marriage index entry I am working from. I will in due course send a note to the owner of that tree, as you never know what other information or reasons they may have had for linking Charles to Emma.

However, in the absence of more compelling proof, I am going to look for more evidence that Charles married Elizabeth.

If my hypothesis that Charles Jarrold married Elizabeth Trott in 1869 is true, and if this is the same Charles Jarrold as died in 1877, then it's reasonable to look for Charles and Elizabeth in the 1871 census. Since I didn't find them together, I went looking for them separately.

What I found out about Charles led to a whole other, unexpected, set of discoveries.

This article is one in an ongoing series, starting with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula in public records: BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death).

 Next: Charles Jarrald, a well-placed servant indeed

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