February 21, 2007

Edited October 11, 2009

Greetings,

What I have here is information about members of the Ellis and Brown families. All of this information comes from searching the records available on Ancestry.com, where I spend far too much time. I recently received photos of some members of both of these families and they are posted in other areas on the website. Write to me if you would like copies, and be sure to include their name(s).

Shirley Vincent Ellis (1852 - 1942) and his wife Emma Hammond (Gregory) Ellis had two children: Shirley Gregory Ellis (1878 - 1951), who was my step-grandfather, and Anne Eliza Ellis (1881 - 1975). Both Shirley Vincent and Emma were born in Massachusetts, as were their children.

Anne Ellis married Ernest W. Brown in about 1905 in Nahant, Massachusetts, and they had three boys: Wayne Vincent, Gregory, and Ernest Bennett. Gregory died at the very young age of six in February of 1914. I do not know the cause of his death, but surely that must have been a very difficult time for the young married couple. The two other boys are frequently listed as passengers on the SS Munargo, sailing to New York from the Bahamas, on vacations that must have been welcome escapes from those cold New England winters. The records show that the Browns travelled to the Bahamas at least six times; each year from 1922 to 1926, and one final trip in 1934. On that final trip Anne was fifty-one years old, had been divorced from Ernest W. Brown for two years, and was accompanied by her son Ernest Bennett Brown, who would have been twenty at the time.

Ernest Wayne Brown appears to have been a successful businessman or attorney. He is the sole member of the Brown family on the passenger list for a trip to New York from Naples on the SS Roma in March, 1928. The Browns lived in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York, where they had an apartment on Fifth Avenue.

Ernest & Anne Brown - Sailing Dates and Destinations
Date	Passenger Name	Ship Name	Sailing From	Sailing To
February 24, 1922	Ernest W. Brown	SS Munargo	Bahamas	New York
April 3, 1922	Anne Brown	"	"	"
"	Wayne Brown	"	"	"
"	Ernest W. Brown	"	"	"
"	Ernest B. Brown	"	"	"
March 21, 1923	Ernest W. Brown	"	"	"
March 28, 1923	Anne Brown	"	"	"
"	Wayne Brown	"	"	"
"	Ernest B. Brown	"	"	"
March 6, 1924	Ernest W. Brown	"	"	"
April 1, 1924	Anne Brown	"	"	"
"	Ernest B. Brown	"	"	"
September 19, 1924	Ernest W. Brown	SS Berengaria	Southhampton	"
"	Anne Brown	"	"	"
March 31, 1925	Ann Brown	SS Munargo	Bahamas	"
"	Ernest B. Brown	"	"	"
"	Ernest W. Brown.	"	"	"
August 31, 1925	Ann Brown	SS Leviathan	Cherbourg, France	"
"	Wayne Brown	"	"	"
"	Ernest B. Brown	"	"	"
January 26, 1926	Anita Ellis	SS Munargo	Bahamas	"
"	Wayne Brown	"	"	"
"	Ernest B. Brown	"	"	"
March 28, 1928	Ernest W. Brown.	SS Roma	Naples, Italy	"
January 1, 1934	Anne Brown.	SS Western World	Bahamas	"
"	Ernest B. Brown.	"	"	"