His father was determined to keep his living son alive and make his wife Cecilia proud.

[citation needed] Elimar was patient but unlike his other half-sister and half-brothers he wanted to have a good education.

When his father died Elimar felt lonely but continued to take public academies.

On 9 November 1876[1] he married morganatically Baroness Natalia Vogel von Friesenhof in Vienna, daughter of Baron Gustav Vogel von Friesenhof (1807-1889) and his wife, Alexandrine Goncharova (1811-1891).

Her mother, being the sister Natalia Goncharova, made her Alexandre Pushkin's niece and cousin of Natalia Alexandrovna Pushkina, Countess of Merenberg (1836-1913), herself the morganatic wife of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau.