His mother's name was Elna Ohlsson, from Västra Vemmerlöv in Skåne. Elna was over forty years old and the wife of Johan Fredrik Kobel, a cigar worker from Ystad. They had been married since 1861 and already had four older children together. In 1876, Mr. Kobel had worked and lived in another place for quite a few years. So, who was Angelo's biological father?
During the spring and winter of 1876, Elna Ohlsson got to know a Spanish (or at least Spanish speaking) sailor named Joseph Augustinus Georges - described alternately to be of Spanish, Hispanic, and African origin. The two are believed to have entered into a serious relationship. In official papers, Elna Ohlsson stated that she was engaged. When her little boy was born, she made sure to enroll him in St Joseph's Catholic Church at Spannmålsgatan. Elna was not a Catholic but clearly deemed it essential to baptize her son into his father's religion. Elna Ohlsson also seems to have continued corresponding with Joseph Augustinus Georges. How would she otherwise have known about him missing at sea in 1893?
Little Angelo may well have been in foster care for his first few years, but in the spring of 1884, Elna Ohlsson gathered all her children and moved to Stockholm. She lived there again with her husband Johan Fredrik Kobel and entered Angelo into the parish register as a 'child in marriage'. The family moved between different addresses in Södermalm, and Angelo attended the Catholic Boys' School at Götgatan. Following his confirmation, Angelo worked as an errand boy for a textile merchant at Västerlånggatan. Eventually, he went to sea as a sailor with the Navy. However, after a few years at sea, Angelo faced court-martial for disobedience, drunkenness, assault, and neglect in service. He was sentenced to one month and twenty-four days at Långholmen Prison and thus banished from the Navy.
Angelo was 22 years old with both a mustache and tattoos. He'd left his family home and would never have a home again. He subsisted as a pedlar (traveling salesman) and was arrested by the police for vagrancy. That was when he was photographed. It was not illegal to be without employment at the time, but as a vagrant, you risked being put to forced labor. Angelo was put to forced labor twice, in Svartsjö on the island of Färingsö.
He was also fined for drunkenness and disorderly behavior and imprisoned for a few minor thefts. Over the years, he served time at Långholmen Prison in Stockholm as well as in Malmö, Mariestad, and Västerås. When not in prison, he took odd jobs as a hard-working laborer. Angelo scraped paint off vessels at Finnboda Shipyard and harvested sugar beets in Skåne in the autumn. At times, he would go off to sea. However, more often he could be found among 'idle drunken men and immoral women'. He drank beer and hard liquor, sold boot laces and brace straps, and begged for money in the streets. In his later years, Angelo spent lengthy periods at so-called 'care homes' – similar to modern poor houses – in Högalid, Enskede, and Stureby outside Stockholm.
Angelo never married and did not father any children, as far as we know. Despite his hard life, Angelo lived to see his eighty-sixth birthday. He died in 1963 and is buried at Skogskyrkogården (The Woodland Cemetery) in Stockholm.
Sources
Information about Angelo Augustino Georges-Kobel sourced from Stockholm City Archives and Stockholm Police Records for the period of 1869 - 1920.