The marriage records of Jacob and Gertrude have yet to be found, and may never be found. We know that they came over to the U.S. in 1854. The reason for this is that they were definately not married where so many people list them as being married. I have a paper from St. Philomenas that states there is no record of their marriage at that church. There is a baptismal record. I plan on posting both as soon as I scan the pile of things I have to scan. This should help everyone with sourcing some.

We know they lived in Sharpsburg, and since they were Germa n they probably attended St. Mary's which was dedicated in June of 1854, but had had services held in the basement s ince 1852. The inability to find records of a marriage is p robably the result of a fire that destroyed St. Mary's church and it's records. In 1866, several months later the corn erstone for a new church was laid, and the church was rebuilt.

On deducing a date this is how I came upon a timeframe.

In the Federal Census of 1900 taken 5 June 1900 Jacob and Gertrude list 45 years as beng the length of their marriage . Tht puts the marriage date between 6 June 1854 and 5 June 1855. We can probably assume they were married prior to October 1854 because of the date of the baptism of their daughter Catherine. The 1900 census goes on to state that the y have been in the US 46 years and both migrated in 1854, yet have been married 45 years. This shows that the weddin g would have probably occured in the U.S.

Taking all of this into account the wedding range would be between June and October of 1854. In Sharpsburg because that was where they were living at the time, and being german one can assume they went to the Catholic Church locally that was primarily German, St. Mary's, it was a split off of St. Josephs. The Church also often used priest s from St. Philomena's in Pittsburgh where their daughter was later baptised, and where there is no marriage record for them.

St. Mary's burned down in 1866, and all records were lost in the fire. Thus there is little chance of finding a record of the marriage.

(This information from schirf.net)