I found Eva Nicolaus in Wales – sometimes you just have to have a little faith ;)

OMG!! I really found the marriage entry of my greataunt in Wales!! #nicolaus #genealogy #chanceofoneinamillion

— Barbara Schmidt (@BarbFFm) September 1, 2014

That was my first reaction yesterday after opening the mail.

You might remember that I had requested two records from them. If not, you can re-read the story here.

Just a quick summary:

obituary of Else Nicolaus provided me with the married names of her two sisters: Lily Lynch and Eva Philipps
asked around in my google+ groups and Kerryn Taylor came up after a random search with two possible entries for a Berger/Lynch and a Nicolaus (married Matthes) / Philipps wedding
checked the website http://www.freebmd.org.uk for the indices of the records and
ordered them via http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content

I was on a business trip in London for two weeks and the day before I left I had a letter from the General Register Office (GRO) in my mailbox.. you know, the real one, where the paper stuff gets in 😉

But it was just one of the requested documents, the one for Lily Berger marrying a Lynch. Unfortunately, the marriage record doesn’t show the mother’s name and since I don’t know a lot about Lily I couldn’t verify, if this record is for “mine”.

But when I returned from London, I had another letter from the GRO in my mailbox and could hardly wait until I reached my flat to open it. I guess they heard me screaming a block away .. 😉

Tadaaaa… here it is (I scanned it as a pdf):

marriage entry Eva Louise Nicolaus

Eva Louise Matthes née Nicolaus married John Percival Philipps, a retired Marine Engineer on May 6, 1949 in Haverfordwest, Pembroke, Wales.

I guess that would fit part of the family story “married a british officer and moved off to Liverpool”.. well, I have to find the Liverpool connection in this. I guess since they ended up in Australia, she emigrated via Liverpool, but that is just a guess – but then, everything in this story started as a wild wild wild guess 😉

Eva worked as a housekeeper in Milford Haven. And another coincidence, during my first week in London I met a colleague from Wales and when I returned today to the office I took the record to him and asked him if he could make something out of what is stated as her residende at the time of the marriage. He could and via google maps we found the exact adress and place where she lived.

I guess during my stay here in the UK I will head over the Wales to take a look. He already said he would help me sorting out things if I need any help, isn’t that nice? Sometimes you just have to ask for help.

But this record leaves me with one more unsecurity. According to the record Eva was 47 years old when she married in 1949 which would give a birthyear of 1902 instead of 1898 which I always had. Which MIGHT mean that on the picture I have of the two sisters Eva and Else I mixed them up all the time… ouch. I will watch out for that!

New questions coming up with this record:

when and where did she meet John Percival Philipps
why, when and how did she move to Wales
why, when and how did they move on to Australia
with being 47 I guess they didn’t have children, but did HE have some from his previous marriage (being widowed)
what happened to her children from her marriage with Hans Matthes, did they come with her
and many many more

One loose end tied up and lot of new discovered 🙂