"Hello! I'm from the federal government. I'm contacting you about unclaimed benefits for which you might be eligible." Most everyone has received a communication like this and dismissed it as a scam. But once in a rare while, it turns out to be real.
Such was the case for our family in May of 2019. My father phoned to notify me of a letter he had received from Veterans Affairs. He had been identified as possible "next of kin" to Malcolm Bramel, who died in 1965 and left no beneficiary for a death benefit. My follow-up telephone conversation with Mr. Gallagher, the case investigator in the Philadelphia office of Veterans Affairs, confirmed the legitimacy of the claim. Apparently, the file had been opened and closed several times over the course of more than half a century since Malcom's death in California. But with the growing popularity of ancestry research and the availability of online records, new clues had led the investigator to my father. I engaged in a quest to assist Mr. Gallagher in identifying and locating any and all eligible beneficiaries.
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| Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, California |
Little was known about my father's paternal side of the family. To complicate things, my dad was probably in the very early stages of dementia by that time. So it stands to reason that he did not realize or remember that Malcolm was his uncle, his father Vernon's younger brother. There was also another brother, Henry, and an older sister, Esther. But Vernon almost never talked about his childhood, his siblings, or his family in general. For decades, we were only told that his family came from Kentucky and that he ran away from home at a young age.
My research of Bramel ancestry ramped up in 2012 after having been derailed by a lack of first hand testimony. I composed a letter to a man named Jerry Bramel of Toledo, Ohio. My research had identified Jerry as a son of Vernon's youngest brother, Henry. My dad and some of his siblings recalled Vernon attending the funeral of Jerry's brother Robert Bramel in 1958 after he drowned in a quarry west of Toledo at age 20, the only mention he ever made of his family. Jerry responded via e-mail to my inquiry with a trove of photographs, newspaper clippings, and documents, including the 1965 death certificate for Malcolm Bramel. Jerry mentioned his half-sister Patricia who was living in their father's old house in Toledo, where the documents were found. After Jerry passed away in 2015, Patricia and I began to correspond via mail and telephone.
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| Malcolm Bramel died in Los Angeles in 1965 |
Second-hand testimony from Jerry and Patricia provided a new perspective about the upbringing of my grandfather and his siblings based on stories told by their father Henry. Patricia wrote that the parents of the four Bramel siblings, George Pearce Bramel and Sally Mae (Nolan) Bramel had apparently divorced around the time of Henry's birth in 1917. The couple had met in Lexington while George, a native of Mason County, Kentucky, was attending College of the Bible there. They were married in 1905 at the home of Sally's parents, William and Susan (Johnson) Nolan, in Lexington. After the divorce, Sally and the boys were living in Covington, Kentucky, and she remarried to a man named Taylor sometime after 1920. When Sally died in 1925, the court determined that the boys should go live with their biological father, George, even though the stepfather had offered to adopt them. Their sister Esther had been living with their paternal grandmother, Amelia (McIntire) Bramel, in Maysville, Kentucky and attending high school there.
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| January 13, 1904 |
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| Married November 9, 1905 |
Meanwhile, George Bramel had married for a second time in November of 1918 to a Tennessee woman, Elizabeth "Bessie" (Lewis) Hatcher, the widow of Henry Hatcher, and they had relocated to Toledo. Since college, George had been a minister, serving small town congregations in several midwestern states. But in his new career, he was driving a dairy delivery truck in Toledo. Bessie had two sons from her first marriage in Tennessee, Raymond and Hurstell. Ten year-old Hurstell was killed in an accident involving an automobile in 1921. George and Bessie had a daughter, Mary Kathleen Bramel, born two weeks before Hurstell's death. Patricia shared that neither she nor anyone in her family had ever heard about the existence of her father's half-sister Kathleen until I shared my research with her.
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| Hurstell Hatcher Death Certificate (Informant: George Bramel) |
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| Lucas County Children's Home, Maumee, Ohio - closed 1986 |
May 10, 2019
Mr. David Jerry Harris, Jr.Cleveland, TennesseeDear Jerry,
I apologize for this intrusion. I’ve been researching Bramel ancestry for several years, and I believe you are a first cousin to my father, so please correct me if I have the wrong person.
My dad, Vernon Bramel of Danville, Kentucky, received a letter from Veterans Affairs this week. It seems that his father, also Vernon Bramel, had a brother named Malcolm who served in the military for a couple of decades from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. Malcolm died in 1965 with a small insurance policy through Veterans Affairs which was never claimed, and they are attempting to find next of kin before closing out the file.
I’m helping my dad with this matter to identify any heirs of Malcolm who would be entitled to a share of the settlement. Malcolm was married briefly and divorced with no direct heirs. His siblings are all deceased. In the next generation, my dad and his three living siblings in Virginia, Oklahoma, and Florida would seem to be entitled to a share, as well as a surviving daughter of Malcolm’s brother Henry in Ohio.
I believe from my research that your mother was Mary Kathleen Bramel, born in Toledo, Ohio in 1921. If this is true, then you too would be entitled to one-sixth of the insurance settlement. Don’t get too excited because it’s only $5,000 divided six ways. I’m just trying my best to make sure no one is left out.
You can contact me via email or via my cell phone xxx-xxx-xxxx to confirm your identity. If you are eligible, then Veterans Affairs will mail you information including a claim form. In the meantime, I think you’ll be interested in the research materials I’ve attached.
I will look forward to hearing from you!
Best Regards,
Kurt Bramel
The following week, I received a telephone call from Mr. Harris, a widower with two children and four grandchildren. He told me all about his mother and his grandmother, from the time they left Toledo and relocated to Chattanooga. George apparently abandoned them sometime around 1930, and then Bessie and Kathleen left Toledo about 1938. Raymond Hatcher stayed in Toledo for a few years, working in the hotel and hospitality industry, before he too returned to Tennessee. He and his mother were temporarily living in Miami at the time of the 1950 Census, on which Bessie's marital status was listed as "separated" rather than divorced. Kathleen Bramel took a job as a salesperson at Miller Brothers, a department store chain based in east Tennessee. She worked at their flagship store in downtown Chattanooga, a four story building that featured two snack bars and a tea room. It's there where she met David Jerome Harris.
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| 1939 employee photo |
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| Kathleen Bramel identified in company photo |
Kathleen at age 19, married Mr. Harris, age 29, and moved with him to the Harris family farm near Apison, east of Chattanooga, with his mother, two older sisters, and a brother-in-law. Two sons were born, David "Jerry" Harris, Jr. in 1941 and Brian Wood Harris in 1943. The family ran a dairy operation for several decades before the farm was sold. Jerry lost his mother and brother in 2014. At the time we connected, he was living in the old family home near Cleveland.
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| Plowman Cemetery, Apison, Tennessee |
Among the documents contributed by Jerry Bramel, from the old Henry Bramel home in Toledo, there was a newspaper clipping announcing the marriage of his aunt Esther Bramel to Charles Hopper. The announcement came from George's sister Nancy Mae, who had married a steel truss bridge magnate named Benjamin Jones. According to Jerry, it was one of Esther's numerous marriages. Did any of these unions result in a cousin who would be eligible for a share of the Malcolm Bramel settlement?
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| Esther Bramel's third (est.) marriage, circa 1940, announced by Nancy Mae (Bramel) Jones |
Esther Mae, the eldest of the four Bramel siblings, was born to George and Sally Mae in 1906 in Kentucky. George's ministry career landed the young family in Ohio and then Indiana for a time, and they appear on the 1910 Census for West Lebanon, Warren County, Indiana. After her parents divorced, she alternated between her paternal grandmother in Maysville and her mother in Covington. She appears in the 1920 Census for both households, Covington enumerated in mid-January and Maysville enumerated in late-January. An apartment in Covington housed Sally Mae and all four Bramel children, Sally's widowed mother Susan Nolan, and a co-worker of Sally who was lodging with the family. The Maysville home of Amelia Bramel, widow of Alonzo Wellwood "Wood" Bramel, was occupied by Esther, Amelia's daughter Hassel, and Hassel's second husband, Charles Hopper. This is the same Mr. Hopper who Esther would marry two decades later. Esther had previously married Robert Allars in Toledo and also a Mr. Sacks apparently in Philadelphia. She married for the final time in 1951 to Lloyd Galbreath in Cleveland, Ohio. They moved to Jacksonville Beach, Florida, where they resided for the remainder of their lives. Esther died in 1981, and for the purpose of locating next of kin for the insurance payment, my research did not uncover any evidence that Esther ever had any children.
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| George, Sally, and Esther Bramel, circa 1908 |
My grandfather Vernon Bramel was born on June 18, 1910 in West Lebanon, Indiana, where his father was pastor of the Christian Church. His two younger brothers were born in Kentucky. Henry was born on March 24, 1917 (confirmed), but the date of Malcolm's birth remains unclear. I had long suspected that both Vernon and Malcolm misrepresented their age during their time at the orphanage in order to qualify for better options. Vernon was placed with a foster family at a farm in Sandusky County, and then Malcolm enlisted in the U.S. Army. Vernon had always told his family that he was born in 1908, the date listed on his drivers license and cemetery headstone. But I located his actual birth record in the vital records department in Attica, Indiana confirming the 1910 date. That birth record revealed another previously unknown fact about my grandfather, that his first name was Clyde. Vernon was actually his middle name.
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| Christian revival in West Lebanon, Indiana - 1909 |
Malcolm enlisted in late 1927 during an era in which the age requirement for enlistment was seventeen with parental consent or eighteen without. Malcolm's birth date is listed on his death certificate and all military records as January 18, 1910, but I suspect it was actually 1911 or 1912, given that his older brother's confirmed date of birth was March of 1910. It is possible and even likely that Malcolm's enlistment occurred prior to his true sixteenth birthday. With a lack of official records in the orphanage setting, unverifiable vital statistics were discerned by the child and accepted by the recruitment officer tasked with meeting recruitment goals.
Malcolm Bramel was assigned to First Battalion, 7th (and later 12th) Field Artillery at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. He traveled by train from Toledo to New York City. Then on December 1, 1927, he boarded the Chateau Thierry at Fort Slocum on Davids Island in the western end of the Long Island Sound for transit to Texas. Military records confirm his active duty at Fort Sam Houston through his discharge on April 25, 1934. An absence of records suggests a gap in active duty for the next three years, although it seems Malcolm remained in San Antonio and probably worked for the military in some capacity.
Then in 1937, Malcolm accepted an assignment with 11th Field Artillery at Schofield Barracks, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii. He traveled to Fort McDowell in the San Francisco Bay for his March 12th embarkation. He traveled aboard the St. Mihiel to Honolulu, arriving for duty on March 18, 1937. He remained at Schofield Barracks with ranks of Private First Class and Corporal until December 28, 1939, at which time he returned to Fort McDowell. Notably, Malcolm's assignment ended two years before U.S. military installations at Oahu were damaged or destroyed during a surprise arial attack by Japanese forces, killing more than 2,400 Americans and plunging the United States into war.
Malcolm Bramel's next assignment appears to be at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington, as enumerated on the 1940 Census. Malcolm married Miss Elsie Perry on September 21, 1940 before the Justice of the Peace for Pierce County in Tacoma. The marriage was short lived and Elsie had moved on to her second marriage by 1946.
As the war ramped up in the Pacific and in Europe, a defense distribution depot was established in San Joaquin County in central California. A review of city directory records suggests that Malcolm was living in Stockton during the wartime years and working at this depot, whose mission was to purchase, store, and ship necessary supplies to armed forces in the Pacific war as well as the Western Front in Europe.
Back in Ohio, the youngest of the three brothers, Henry Carl Bramel, was just eight years old when their mother died. With Vernon having been farmed out and Malcolm having joined the Army, Henry was left with fewer options. It seems that he alternated between the orphanage, distant family, and foster care during his childhood and teen years.
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| Henry Bramel with his mother Sally Mae |
In addition to their father, the Bramel brothers had several other relatives living in or near Toledo during those years after their mother's death in 1925. In part, this can be attributed to the so-called "Hillbilly Highway," referring to the migration of Kentuckians and others native to Appalachia to the industrialized regions of the North, beginning after 1910 and continuing for half a century. Prior generations of Bramels had primarily farmed their lands in southern Mason County since the 1812 arrival of George's great-great grandfather Jonathan Bramhall, a veteran of the American Revolution, from Charles County, Maryland. The Nolans of Kentucky originally settled along the Kentucky River south of Lexington near Old Cane Springs Church, which the family helped to establish. Henry Noland, also a patriot of the American Revolution and a great-great grandfather of Sally Mae, operated Noland's Ferry beginning before 1800, connecting College Hill Road in Madison County to southern Clark County at the confluence of the Red River.
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| William John Noland (1775-1858), Sally Mae's great grandfather |
Patricia Bramel shared with me that she knew of a first cousin, John Nolan, born in 1938 and still living in Toledo. He is actually the son of Sally Mae's youngest brother John Nolan Sr. who had left Kentucky for Toledo and was working as a machinist for a spark plug manufacturer as of 1920. His mother Susan Nolan, maternal grandmother to the Bramel brothers, appears to have left Covington and was living in Toledo, perhaps with John, until her death in 1929. Esther Bramel, after her 1925 graduation from Maysville High School and the death of her mother, found her way to Toledo, where she was married for the first time to Robert Allars on December 5, 1925. Additionally, the boys' paternal grandmother Amelia Bramel, accompanied by her daughter Hassel, had visited with her other daughter Nancy May who resided in nearby Detroit, according to a 1927 newspaper clipping announcing Amelia's passing.
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| Mary Amelia (McIntire) Bramel (1849-1927) |
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| Amelia Bramel death notice - 1927 |
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| Seated: Susan (Johnson) Nolan (1850-1929) Standing: Sally Mae (left), Unknown sister? (Right) |
My dad ran away from that hell hole orphanage at age 14 years and went back down to Kentucky to be with Sadie Caldwell, his 1st cousin (Sadie's mother and Sallie Mae were sisters). She basically took care of him for awhile. Eventually, my dad came back up here to work. Plus Vernon was here.
Patricia's timeline places Henry at the orphanage from 1925 to 1931, and she makes no mention of intervention from family members in the Toledo area. Sadie Caldwell, the cousin who took in Henry, was one of four children born to Eva Nolan, who married Joshua Caldwell in 1892. They had a son and three daughters before Eva's untimely death about 1901. The son, Smith Henry Caldwell, went to live with his father in Winchester, Kentucky. The three young daughters, Fannie, Elizabeth, and Sadie Mae, were raised by nuns at the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, a convent in Fort Thomas. Perhaps this made them more sympathetic than other family members to Henry's plight.
Henry stayed with Sadie in the Covington area for a couple years or so before returning to Ohio. He went to work on Amiel Helle's farm east of Toledo in Jerusalem Township, in the vicinity of what is now Maumee Bay State Park. Henry and the farmer's daughter Sophia began a relationship and were married on June 18, 1935.
He worked for Helle's and that's where he met Sophie, got her pregnant, and a "shotgun" wedding occurred. My dad was only 18 years old when Jerry was born January 18, 1936, and Bob was born a year or so later. My dad was a dumb kid who had no male role models in his life since he was 8 or 9 years old. So consequently he cheated and left Sophie and the boys. Vernon never forgave him and never had anything to do with my dad again.
Patricia's account squares with the testimony from my dad and his siblings. Vernon disassociated with Henry because he felt a man should never abandon his family in the way that his own father George had done to him, his mother, and his siblings. It seems that George, after leaving his second family behind in Toledo, spent some time in Columbus, where married for a third time to Leone Morris. They relocated briefly to Houston, Texas before settling permanently in Shreveport, Louisiana. George died there in 1963, Leone in 1984.
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| Forest Park Cemetery, Shreveport, Louisiana |
Henry worked on a crew building county roads through the Work Progress Administration, a federal agency created during the Great Depression of the 1930's to provide jobs for millions of Americans while shoring up infrastructure. After his divorce, he moved into Toledo and worked in the burgeoning automobile parts industry for the remainder of his career, retiring in 1977 from City Auto Stamping Company. Henry developed a shaping machine for which he received a patent in 1950. He was married briefly to Juanita Fern Schooner in 1947. Then he married for a third time in 1951 to Edna Marie Eckhardt. Patricia was born the following year. Meanwhile, Sophie and their two sons settled in the nearby village of Millbury, where the boys attended Lake High School. She remarried to Andrew Cook.
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| 1958 death notice for Robert, son of Henry and Sophia |
Vernon, at age fifteen, probably resided in the orphanage only for a brief period before being farmed out. He went to live with the Harold and Jennie Hufford family on their farm west of Fremont. By all accounts, the Huffords were kind-hearted people who treated Vernon very well. As a testament to this, Vernon maintained contact with them and even took his children to visit with them years later.
The Hufford farm was situated where U.S. Rt. 6 meets State Rt. 590 six miles north of the village of Bettsville. Just to the southeast of Bettsville at Maple Grove, a large stone quarry operated by Dolomite Products Company had been ramping up production since the onset of the war in Europe a decade earlier, World War I. The main product was dolomite flux widely used in the steel industry. Vernon was hired there in 1927 and would work there for the next 49 years. The name of the company later changed to Basic Refractories and then Basic, Inc., and Howard P. Eells Jr. was its Chairman and Chief Executive.
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| Cleveland businessman H.P. Eells Sr. acquired the quarry from Holran Stone Co. in 1908 |
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| New signage for Basic's Maple Grove operation, 1949 |
Vernon met Marietta Semer soon after his arrival in Bettsville, and no one is quite sure how or why they met. My best guess is that some of her Semer brothers were working at Dolomite Production, as most working age males in the area did at some point, and perhaps that's how they were introduced. Vernon and Marietta were both age seventeen when they were married.
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| Vernon and Marietta, married November 26, 1927 |
Vernon and Marietta rented a very rudimentary house situated on farmland next to the railroad tracks just south of Bettsville. All five sons were born there between 1928 and 1935, Richard Eugene, Malcolm Earl, Charles Everett, George Raymond, and my father Vernon William. By about 1940, they had saved enough to purchase that same house along with three lots at the southeast corner of Bettsville in what was known as the Andrews Addition, or "The Ridge." The cost of the land, the house, and the relocation of the structure a quarter of a mile down Seneca Street totaled $900. A daughter was born in 1942, Sally Darlene.
Vernon had no more than an eighth grade education, but he was very well-read and self-taught from publications like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. He built a galley-style kitchen along the north end of the house. There was no indoor bathroom until Sally was about junior high age, at which time Vernon built a back addition with a shower and toilet, along with a septic system. He made cinderblocks by pouring cement into molds and used them to build a barn where they kept a pair of dairy cows. They cultivated a large vegetable garden next to a root cellar. Vernon built a tractor from scrap parts and rented a field out in Liberty Township where he and the older sons planted, harvested, and sold popcorn for supplemental income. He used lumber from the stone quarry's discarded dynamite crates to build tables, benches, and even toys.
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| Sons of Vernon and Marietta Bramel, circa 1939 |
In the years following World War II, all five sons served in the military in some capacity. Meanwhile, their uncle Malcolm Bramel returned to Texas and served out the remainder of his military career in the newly created United States Air Force. He achieved the rank of First Lieutenant at the Goodfellow Air Force Base near the west Texas city of San Angelo. He married a junior high music teacher from Iowa, Hazel Gertrude Palmer, but they remained married only until the mid-1950's. Malcolm retired from the Air Force in July of 1952. He relocated to Los Angeles for the last decade of his life.
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| Article from a military publication in Germany |
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| Vernon, Marietta & Family, circa 1957 (first reunion in 11 years) Vernon Jr., Charles Everett, Sally, Earl, Vernon, Richard Eugene, Marietta, George |
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| Spouses: Joanne Fuller (Charles), Sally, Madonna Henderson (Richard), Marietta, Sharon Jeanette (Vernon Jr.), Virginia Maggard (Earl) |
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| Four of about 20 grandchildren next to Vernon's cinderblock barn, circa 1958 David, Richard, Sandra, and Jennifer |
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| Vernon with Basic Inc. CEO Howard P. Eells, Jr. at a company event, ca. 1956 |
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| Basic, Inc. - Maple Grove facilities, 1975 |
Vernon continued his employment at Basic, Inc. until his retirement in 1976. That same year, he received an inheritance from the estate of his aunt Nancy Mae, widow of Benjamin Jones. He and Marietta purchased a mobile home recreational vehicle and embarked on numerous vacation trips.
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| 1976 death notice for Nancy Mae Bramel, Akron Beacon |
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| Marietta and Vernon with their mobile home, 1987 |
Satisfied that all the living heirs of the Malcolm Bramel life insurance benefit had been identified and located, Mr. Gallagher of Veterans Affairs mailed out claim forms for the eligible beneficiaries. Ultimately, the $5,000 benefit, a ceremonial gesture for the most part, was shared between Vernon's three living children and their cousin in Toledo. The other living cousin in Tennessee, unknown before this project, opted out of his share.
One of the beneficiaries was Malcolm Earl Bramel, the namesake of this article's central character. Uncle Earl was instrumental in providing some of the anecdotes and photographs compiled for this project. As his physical being succumbs to the inevitable and natural decline of his 94 years, his mind, memory, and wit remain as sharp as ever. I'm proud to call him my friend, and to him I dedicate this article.
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| Malcolm "Earl" Bramel |
LINKS:
The story behind Vernon Bramel's Big Inheritance
Amelia Bramel's grandfather, Alexander McIntire, was an early Kentucky frontiersman who was Killed by the Shawnee.
Marietta's father, William Semer, moved the family to Bettsville after a lengthy military career that began at Fort Zachery Taylor, Key West, Florida
The Bramel DNA project traces our ties back to Medieval England.
A tribute to my father: Vernon William Bramel
Descendants of Alonzo Wellwood Bramel and Mary Amelia McIntire
Generation 1
1. ALONZO WELLWOOD "WOOD" BRAMEL (William Washington Bramel, James Alexander Bramel, Jonathan Bramhall) was born on 26 May 1856 in Lewisburg, Mason County, Kentucky. He died on 05 Nov 1916 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He married MARY AMELIA MCINTIRE (daughter of Alexander McIntire Jr. and Miriam Lyons) on 02 Apr 1885 in Fernleaf, Mason County, Kentucky. She was born on 04 Sep 1849 in Mason County, Kentucky. She died in 1927 in Detroit, Michigan.
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| Maysville Cemetery, Mason County, Kentucky |
Alonzo Wellwood Bramel and Mary Amelia McIntire had the following children:
2. i. GEORGE PIERCE BRAMEL was born on 26 Feb 1886 in Mason County, Kentucky. He died on 4 Aug 1963 in Shreveport, Louisiana. He married (1) SALLY MAE NOLAN (daughter of William Henry Nolan and Susan Johnson) on 09 Nov 1905 in Lexington, Kentucky. She was born in Sep 1880 in Lexington, Kentucky. She died on 23 Aug 1925 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He married (2) ELIZABETH LEWIS on 15 Nov 1918 in Anderson County, Tennessee. She was born on 23 Jul 1890 in Roane County, Tennessee. She died in Jul 1979 in Hamilton County, Tennessee. He married (3) LEONE MORRIS about 1938 in Columbus, Franklin, Ohio, United States. She was born on 24 Mar 1903 in West Virginia. She died on 21 Oct 1984 in Shreveport, Louisiana.
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| George P. Bramel (1886-1963) |
ii. LESLIE BRAMEL was born on 03 Nov 1887 in Mason County, Kentucky. He died in Jun 1967 in Soap Lake, Grant County, Washington.
iii. NANCY MAE BRAMEL was born in Dec 1889 in Kentucky, United States. She died on 24 Feb 1976 in Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio. She married (1) WARREN HAGER WILKINSON on 7 Nov 1914 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was born on 05 Jan 1887 in Columbus, Ohio. He died on 17 Oct 1975 in Duval County, Florida. She married (2) BENJAMIN FRANKLIN JONES (son of Benjamin Enoch Jones and Harriet Bellars) on 10 July 1931 at Mackinac Island, Michigan. He was born on 28 Sep 1884 in North Lawrence, Stark County, Ohio. He died on 26 Jul 1967 in Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio.
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| Benjamin and Nancy Mae (Bramel) Jones, Lavern Lloyd Jones and Harlene, circa 1932 |
3. iv. MIRIAM HASSEL BRAMEL was born in Mar 1892 in Mason County, Kentucky. She married (1) ARTHUR BARKER CRASK (son of John R Crask and Mary Crask) on 31 May 1910 in Tuscola, Douglas County, Illinois (Rev. George P. Bramel, brother of the bride, officiated the ceremony at the court house). He was born on 30 Aug 1890 in Warren County, Indiana. He died on 21 Dec 1949 in Los Angeles, California. She married (2) CHARLES CLARK HOPPER (son of Charles C. Hopper and Anna Clarke) on 16 May 1917 in Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana (they lived with her mother per 1920 census). He was born on 12 Jul 1895 in Mason County, Kentucky. He died on 11 Mar 1959 in Mason County, Kentucky. She married (?) LAUDER. He died in Michigan.
Generation 2
George Pierce Bramel and Sally Mae Nolan had the following children:
i. ESTHER MAE BRAMEL was born on 6 Dec 1906 in Kentucky. She died on 5 Feb 1981 in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida. She married (1) ROBERT L. ALLARS on 5 Dec 1925 in Toledo, Ohio. He was born 15 Dec 1899 in Illinois. She married (2) Mr. SACKS about 1927. She married (3) CHARLES CLARK HOPPER (son of Charles C Hopper and Anna Clarke) about 1945 in Augusta, Bracken, Kentucky, USA. He was born on 12 Jul 1895 in Mason County, Kentucky. He died on 11 Mar 1959 in Mason County, Kentucky. She married (4) LLOYD MERRILL GALBRETH on 1 Oct 1951 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was born on 14 Aug 1905 in Chicopee, Hampden County, Massachusetts. He died on 16 Apr 1978 in Jacksonville Beach, Duval County, Florida.
4. ii. CLYDE VERNON BRAMEL was born on 18 Jun 1910 in West Lebanon, Warren County, Indiana. He died on 23 May 1992 in Toledo, Ohio. He married MARIETTA SEMER (daughter of William Lampson Semer and Nettie Blanche Russell) on 28 Nov 1927 in Belmor, Putnam County, Ohio. She was born on 01 Mar 1910 in Fort Schuyler, Bronx, New York. She died on 04 Aug 1993 in Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky.
iii. MALCOLM BRAMEL was born on 18 Jan 1912 in Kentucky. He died on 04 Apr 1965 in Hawthorne, Los Angeles County, California. He married (1) ELSIE PERRY (daughter of Earl H. Perry and Addie Bacey) about 1940 in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington. She was born about 1923 in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin. He married (2) HAZEL GERTRUDE PALMER (daughter of Lowie C. Palmer and Jessie M. McMasters) about 1948 in San Angelo, Texas. She was born on 14 Jul 1918 in Soldier, Monona County, Iowa. She died in Mar 1994 in Denver, Denver, Colorado.
iv. GEORGE BRAMEL was born on 26 Jan 1913 in Knox County, Indiana. He died in 1913 (speculative).
5. v. HENRY CARL BRAMEL was born on 24 Mar 1917 in Mason County, Kentucky. He died on 16 Sep 1984 in Toledo, Ohio. He married (1) SOPHIA A. HELLE on 18 Jun 1935 in Lucas County, Ohio. She was born on 25 Oct 1914 in Lucas County, Ohio. She died on 22 Jun 1999 in Oregon, Lucas County, Ohio. He married (2) JUANITA FERN SCHOONER on 27 Aug 1947 in Toledo, Ohio. He married (3) EDNA MARIE ECKHARDT (daughter of Arthur Robert Eckhardt and Marie Eleanor Mominee) on 12 May 1951 in Toledo, Ohio. She died on 15 Sep 1980 in Toledo, Ohio.
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| Henry C. Bramel (1917-1984) |
George Pierce Bramel and Elizabeth Lewis had the following child:
vi. MARY KATHLEEN BRAMEL (daughter of George Pierce Bramel and Elizabeth Lewis) was born on 12 Apr 1921 in Toledo, Ohio. She died on 28 Jul 2014 in Cleveland, Bradley County, Tennessee. She married DAVID JEROME HARRIS, SR. about 1940 in Hamilton County, Tennessee. He was born 3 Aug 1907 in Jefferson County, Tennessee and died in Aug 1971 in Hamilton County, Tennessee.
Arthur Barker Crask and Miriam Hassel Bramel had the following child:
i. RUBY LOUISE CRASP (daughter of Arthur Barker Crask and Miriam Hassel Bramel) was born on 26 Jun 1911 in West Lebanon, Warren County, Indiana. She died on 15 Oct 1984 in West Covina, Los Angeles, California, United States of America. She married (1) ORVAL M. TYLER (son of James Crettington Tyler and Nora Jane Young) in 1929 in St. Joseph, Indiana, United States. He was born about 1908 in Indiana. He died on 20 Sep 1977 in Los Angeles, California.
Generation 3
Clyde Vernon Bramel and Marietta Semer had the following children:
i. RICHARD EUGENE "TUFFY" BRAMEL was born on 27 May 1928 in Bettsville, Seneca, Ohio. He died 11 Apr 2018 in Punta Gorda, Charlotte County, Florida. He married MADONNA HENDERSON (daughter of Shirley J. Henderson and Helena Depinet) on 09 Dec 1949. She was born on 17 Mar 1931 in Ohio. She died on 6 Jun 2020 in Punta Gorda, Charlotte County, Florida.
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| Richard "Tuffy" and Madonna Bramel, 2011 |
ii. MALCOLM EARL BRAMEL was born on 19 Feb 1930 in Bettsville, Seneca County, Ohio. He died on 9 May 2025 in Emporia, Greensville County, Virginia. He married (1) VIRGINIA ROSE MAGGARD. She was born on 04 Sep 1925 in Whitesburg, Letcher County, Kentucky. She died in 2010 in Lexington, Kentucky. He married (2) KATHERINE KNIGHT (daughter of Wilbur Haywood Knight and Allie Morris). She was born 20 Jun 1938 in Greene County, Virginia.
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| Katherine, Marietta, and Earl, 1992 |
iii. GEORGE RAYMOND BRAMEL was born on 06 Jan 1932 in Bettsville, Seneca County, Ohio. He died on 22 Jan 2001 in Milford, Geary County, Kansas. He married (1) FREDA MELISSA COLLINS (daughter of Paul and Lillian Collins) on 10 May 1950 in Seneca County, Ohio. She was born on 18 Nov 1930 in Seneca County, Ohio. She died on 6 Jun 2020. He married BARBARA NELL "BOBBIE" BRITT on 1 Jul 1965 in Fairfax, Virginia. He married (2) ELSIE SHILEY about 1956. She was born on 21 Jun 1935 in Ohio. She died on 21 Jul 2005 in Ohio, United States. He married MARGUARITE SHILEY. He married CAROL J DEWEY.
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| Freda and George, circa 1950 |
iv. CHARLES EVERETT BRAMEL was born on 14 Dec 1933 in Bettsville, Seneca County, Ohio. He died 15 Oct 2019 in Okemah, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma. He married (1) JOANN FULLER in 1957 in Missouri, United States. She was born on 19 Feb 1940 in Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri. She died 22 May 2013 in Edmond, Oklahoma. He married (2) SHARON CHILDERS on 12 Jul 1996 in Eureka Springs, Carroll County, Arkansas.
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| Charles Everett Bramel |
v. VERNON WILLIAM BRAMEL JR. was born on 09 Oct 1935 in Bettsville, Seneca County, Ohio. He died 5 April 2025 in Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky. He married Sharon Lee Jeanette (daughter of Joseph Benjamin Jeanette and Winifred Chapman) on 09 Dec 1954 in Auburn, DeKalb County, Indiana. She was born on 16 Apr 1938 in Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio.
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| Vernon Jr. and Sharon, 2014 |
vi. SALLY DARLENE BRAMEL was born on 14 Apr 1942 in Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio. She married MICHAEL KEAR (son of Russell Wayne Kear and Dorothy Marie Wahrer) in Oct 1966 in Lake County, Florida. He was born on 09 May 1944 in Tiffin, Seneca, Ohio, USA.
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| Sally and Mike, 2013 |
Henry Carl Bramel and Sophia A Helle had the following children:
i. JERRY CARL BRAMEL was born on 10 Jan 1936 in Curtice, Lucas County, Ohio. He died on 29 Aug 2015 in Toledo, Ohio.
ii. ROBERT CHARLES BRAMEL was born on 08 Oct 1937 in Curtice, Lucas County, Ohio. He died on 17 May 1958 in Whitehouse, Lucas County, Ohio.
Henry Carl Bramel and Edna Marie Eckhardt had the following child:
iii. PATRICIA ANN BRAMEL was born on 27 Nov 1952 in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio. She married LLOYD GEORGE WHITAKER in Jun 1971 in Toledo, Ohio.
Mary Kathleen Bramel and David Jerome Harris had the following children:
i. DAVID JEROME HARRIS, JR. was born in 1941 in Hamilton County, Tennessee. He married WILLIE "RUTH" GOFORTH on 28 Jun 1969 in Hamilton County, Tennessee. She was born on 11 Oct 1944 in Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee and died on 22 Nov 2016 in Cleveland, Bradley County, Tennessee.
ii. BRIAN WOOD HARRIS was born 28 Jun 1943 in Hamilton County, Tennessee. He died on 8 Jul 2014 in Hamilton County, Tennessee.
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