Brown, Cecile Hortense

Also Known As Brown, Cecile Hortense
Gramps ID I9536
Gender female
Age at Death 50 years, 11 months

Events

Event Date Place Description
Sources Notes
Birth 1898-06-14 Tocsin, Lancaster Twp, Wells Cty, Indiana, USA  
1a
Census 1900 Lancaster Twp, Wells Cty, Indiana, USA  
2a
Census 1910 Lancaster Twp, Wells Cty, Indiana, USA  
3a
Census 1920 Bluffton, Wells Cty, Indiana, USA  
4a
Census 1930 Walton, Eaton Cty, Michigan, USA  
5a
Census 1940 Lansing, Ingham Cty, Michigan, USA  
6a
Death 1949-05-14 Ann Arbor, Washtenaw Cty, Michigan, USA  
7a 8a
Burial   Deepdale Memorial Park, Delta Twp, Eaton Cty, Michigan, USA  
 

Parents

Relation to main person Name Birth date Death date Relation within this family (if not by birth)
Father Brown, John L. [I9527]1841-01-291914-04-08
Mother Ogle, Leticia [I9526]1851-05-111913-04-05
    Brother     Brown, Benjamin [I9528] 1869-03-23 1954-02-07
    Brother     Brown, Alexander Hamilton [I9529] 1870-09-11 1937-09-01
    Sister     Brown, Jane Isabelle [I9530] 1875-09-06 1936-01-26
    Brother     Brown, James Glenn [I9531] 1877-09-11 1947-05-20
    Sister     Brown, Margaret L. [I9532] 1879
    Sister     Brown, Cora Dell [I9533] 1882-08-20 1954-08-25
    Sister     Brown, Jessie [I9534] 1883 1914
    Sister     Brown, Bessie Arlema [I9535] 1887-01-19 1934-07-07
         Brown, Cecile Hortense [I9536] 1898-06-14 1949-05-14

Families

    Family of Brickley, Howard L. and Brown, Cecile Hortense [F2998]
Unknown Partner Brickley, Howard L. [I9671] ( * 1892-02-28 + 1930-10-31 )
  Children
Name Birth Date Death Date
Brickley, Lorin Jerome [I9672]1915-12-311990-06-07
    Family of Berry, Floyd Curtis and Brown, Cecile Hortense [F2999]
Married Husband Berry, Floyd Curtis [I9673] ( * 1896-07-04 + 1947-03-24 )
   
Event Date Place Description
Sources Notes
Marriage 1918-11-23 Wells Cty, Indiana, USA  
1a
Divorce      
7b
  Children
Name Birth Date Death Date
Berry, Jimmy [I9679]
Berry, Joe Gene [I9680]
Berry, Jack Harold [I9676]1920-02-191980-07-29
Berry, Nyla Eloise [I9674]1921-07-081975-12-27
Berry, Donald E. [I9677]1925-07-021984-04-18
Berry, John D. [I9678]1927-03-041975-02-16
Berry, Keith C. [I9675]1929-07-291982-04-25

Narrative

[Obituary for Cecile H. Berry, from the Lansing State Journal, 16 May 1949; posted online to the FindaGrave.com website.]

Mrs. Cecile H. Berry, 53, of 1403 E. Jolly rd., died Saturday morning at Ann Arbor after an illness of five months. She had been a resident of this city for six years. She is survived by seven sons, Lorin Brickley of Charlotte, Jack, John, Donald, Keith, and Jimmy Berry, all of Lansing, and Joe Gene Berry of Gull Lake; one daughter, Mrs. Eloise Carmoney, of Charlotte; one sister, Mrs. Cora Durr of Bluffton, Ind., and 19 grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at the Robinson funeral home Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock, with Rev. H.V. Wade officiating. Pallbearers will be Abe Herman, Leon Durr, Cecil Lippert, Mac Durr, George Whitiner and Clyde Crickmore. Burial will be in Deepdale cemetery.

 

Narrative

Note: Researching Cecile Hortense Brown and family

Due to some gaps in the records I have been able to find, a few pieces of conflicting information, and what appears to have been a slightly-complicated household history, I have had some difficulty confirming a relatively complete picture of Cecile's family life. What follows is the best summary I am able to present at this point.

Cecile's obituary names survivors as eight children (seven sons and one daughter) and one sister, and also indicates she had nineteen grandchildren. No mention is made of any husband in the obituary.

Cecile's oldest child (Lorin Jerome Brickley) was born at the end of 1915, when she was seventeen; though I have been unable to find a birth record for him, he appears with her and her household in the following two US Census records, bearing the surname Berry in the listings (his step-father's surname). Lorin's obituary names him a son of "Howard and Cecile Brickley," born in Bluffton, Wells Cty, Indiana (near where Cecile was born and raised). Howard L. Brickley was the Indiana-born son of Alexander Brickley and Carrie Donaldson, and was counted in his parents' household in January on the 1920 US Census, listed as single and employed at his father's butcher shop. Howard may well have relocated with his family, as two months later he married to Ohio-born Helen Dale Lambert in St. Joseph Cty, Michigan. This marriage license stated that this was a first marriage for Howard. Helen and Howard divorced in September 1926 (according to her next marriage license in 1936 in Indiana), and I have been unable to confirm Howard's whereabouts after 1920. There is a 1930 US Census listing for an Indiana-born Howard L. Brickley of nearly identical age, recorded in early April as a prisoner in the US Penitentiary at McNeil Island, Pierce Cty, Washington, though I am uncertain if this is the same Howard that was the son of Alexander and Carrie. The listing for Howard on the FindaGrave.com website contains a copy of his death record from 31 Oct 1930 (stating he died as a result of an automobile accident) in Fort Wayne, Allen Cty, Indiana, listing his wife as "Helen Lambert Brickley" and naming his parents as Alexander and Carrie. Howard appears to be buried with his parents in a family plot in a cemetery in Michigan. I have not found any indication that Howard had further children other than Lorin.

Cecile married in November 1918 to Floyd Curtis Berry, son of George W. Berry and Clara V. Bricker. The marriage application stated that this was a first marriage for each of them. The two of them were counted in the 1920 US Census in Bluffton, Wells Cty, Indiana, with Cecile's son Lorin and her older brother James Glenn Brown in their household; in the 1930 US Census, the couple had relocated to Walton, Eaton Cty, Michigan, and their household included Lorin and their five children (Jack, Nila Eloise, Donald, John, and Keith).

In the 1940 US Census, Cecile was counted in with just her sons Jack, Donald, and John in her household, along again with her older brother James Glenn Brown. (By this time, both Lorin and Nyla Eloise had married and moved out.) Her status was given as "married," though Floyd was missing from the listing. I have been unable to find Floyd in the 1940 US Census, and her younger son Keith counted as a "step-son" in the household of Leon Parsons, 150 miles away, near where Cecile's household had previously lived in Eaton Cty, Michigan. (Also counted as a "step-daughter" in Parson's household was seventeen-year-old Joyce Henry; I suspect Keith and Joyce were rather employed by the Parsons, rather than part of their family. I have not found information as to why Keith may have stayed in Eaton Cty.)

The next record I can find for the family is Floyd's death certificate from Lansing, Ingham Cty, Michigan in 1947; this record lists him as "divorced." Cecile's death record from 1949 gives her marital status as "widowed." It seems clear the couple separated at some point, but I have not found any record of their divorce at this time. Both Floyd and Cecile are buried in the Deepdale Memorial Park in Delta Twp, Eaton Cty, Michigan.

Of the last two potential children of Cecile's - "Jimmy" and "Joe Gene" Berry - the only reference I have found thus far is their mention in Cecile's obituary. I have not found any birth, death, marriage, census listing, or burial records for the two of them, and I have not found obituaries for any of Cecile's children (except an exerpt for Lorin) to find a list of surviving or predeceased sibilngs in the family. These two could have been born after 1930, but for them to be absent from their mother's household in 1940 is strange; they may have remained with their father, as I have been unable to find Floyd in the 1940 US Census, but I cannot confirm this. All four grandparents were deceased prior to 1930, so younger children could not have gone to live with them.

Of the three youngest confirmed sons of Cecile and Floyd - Donald, John, and Keith - I have not found any record of marriages for them, nor any reference to any children they may have had.

 

Pedigree

  1. Brown, John L. [I9527]
    1. Ogle, Leticia [I9526]
      1. Brown, Benjamin [I9528]
      2. Brown, Alexander Hamilton [I9529]
      3. Brown, Jane Isabelle [I9530]
      4. Brown, James Glenn [I9531]
      5. Brown, Margaret L. [I9532]
      6. Brown, Cora Dell [I9533]
      7. Brown, Jessie [I9534]
      8. Brown, Bessie Arlema [I9535]
      9. Brown, Cecile Hortense
        1. Brickley, Howard L. [I9671]
          1. Brickley, Lorin Jerome [I9672]
        2. Berry, Floyd Curtis [I9673]
          1. Berry, Jack Harold [I9676]
          2. Berry, Nyla Eloise [I9674]
          3. Berry, Donald E. [I9677]
          4. Berry, John D. [I9678]
          5. Berry, Keith C. [I9675]
          6. Berry, Jimmy [I9679]
          7. Berry, Joe Gene [I9680]

Ancestors

Source References

  1. Indiana, Marriages, 1811-2019 [S0496]
      • Confidence: High
      • Citation:

        "Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVM1-54DM : 8 April 2021), Floyd Curtis Berry and Cecile Hortense Broun, 23 Nov 1918; citing Wells, Indiana, United States, Marriage License, Indiana Commission on Public Records, Indianapolis; FHL microfilm 007578260.

        "Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVM1-G9FT : 8 April 2021), Floyd Curtis Berry and Cecile Hortense Brown, 23 Nov 1918; citing Wells, Indiana, United States, Marriage License, Indiana Commission on Public Records, Indianapolis; FHL microfilm 007578249.

         

         

  2. US Census of 1900 [S0039]
      • Citation:

        "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M99G-C3Y : accessed 21 March 2021), Bessie A Brown in household of Sutisha Brown, Lancaster Township (north half), Wells, Indiana, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 147, sheet 2B, family 37, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,413.

        Event Date: 1900
        Event Place: Lancaster Township (north half), Wells, Indiana, United States
        Sutisha Brown Head Female 50 Indiana
        Hamilton Brown Son Male 29 Indiana
        Corra D Brown Daughter Female 19 Indiana
        Jessie Brown Daughter Female 17 Indiana
        Bessie A Brown Daughter Female 13 Indiana
        Cecile A Brown Daughter Female 5 Indiana

         

  3. US Census of 1910 [S0040]
      • Citation:

        "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKRD-7KH : accessed 21 March 2021), John L Brown, Lancaster, Wells, Indiana, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 165, sheet 4A, family 71, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 388; FHL microfilm 1,374,401.

        Event Date: 1910
        Event Place: Lancaster, Wells, Indiana, United States
        John L Brown Head Male 66 Indiana
        Lukiska Brown Wife Female 58 Indiana
        Cecil A Brown Daughter Female 13 Indiana

         

  4. US Census of 1920 [S0041]
      • Citation:

        "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFHZ-8KY : 1 February 2021), Gleen Brown in entry for Floyd Berry, 1920.

        Event Date 1920
        Event Place Bluffton, Wells, Indiana, United States
        Floyd Berry Head Male 23 Indiana
        Cecil Berry Wife Female 21 Indiana
        Lorin Berry Son Male 4 Indiana
        Gleen Brown Brother-in-law Male 43 Indiana

         

  5. US Census of 1930 [S0042]
      • Citation:

        "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XQYD-65R : accessed 19 October 2021), Cecile Berry in household of Floyd C Berry, Walton, Eaton, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 28, sheet 6B, line 84, family 151, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 983; FHL microfilm 2,340,718.

        Event Date 1930
        Event Place Walton, Eaton, Michigan, United States
        Floyd C Berry Head M 33 Indiana
        Cecile Berry Wife F 31 Indiana
        Lorin Berry Son M 14 Indiana
        Jack H Berry Son M 10 Indiana
        Nilah E Berry Daughter F 8 Indiana
        Donald E Berry Son M 4 Indiana
        John D Berry Son M 3 Indiana
        Keith C Berry Son M 0 Michigan

         

  6. US Census of 1940 [S0043]
      • Citation:

        "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4L6-VK8 : 29 June 2021), James G Brown in household of Cecile Berry, Lansing, Lansing, Ingham, Michigan Territory, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 33-44A, sheet 2A, line 35, family 37, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 1761.

        Event Date 1940
        Event Place Lansing, Lansing, Ingham, Michigan Territory, United States
        Cecile Berry Head F 38 Indiana
        Jack Berry Son M 20 Indiana
        Donald Berry Son M 14 Indiana
        John Berry Son M 13 Indiana
        James G Brown Brother M 62 Indiana

         

  7. Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952 [S0145]
      • Confidence: High
      • Citation:

        "Michigan Death Certificates, 1921-1952," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KF75-4BV : 13 March 2018), Cecile H Berry, 14 May 1949; citing Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, Michigan, United States, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics, Lansing; FHL microfilm 1,973,135.

         

      • Confidence: High
      • Citation:

        "Michigan Death Certificates, 1921-1952," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KF3S-V1B : 13 March 2018), Floyd Berry, 24 Mar 1947; citing Lansing, Ingham, Michigan, United States, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics, Lansing; FHL microfilm 1,972,748.

         

  8. Lansing State Journal (Michigan) [S0497]
      • Date: 1949-05-16