Mollie Macephius Monroe Brand was my great-grandmother on my father’s paternal side. I never had the opportunity to meet her, but she always felt like an enigma to me as a child, and I craved to know her story.
I only knew of one picture of her and the stories my grandmother shared. My grandfather rarely spoke about his past due to the hard life he and his family lived during the Great Depression.
The only detail I knew about her was that she died when he was a child.
The Only Known Photograph of Mollie
Below is the only known image1 of Mollie Monroe Brand (pictured with three of her children in the front and two older nieces in the back. It was taken around 1909, before her daughter Olga Brand was born.
Form a Connection
In my initial research, I did not have much information about her. I started searching for what I knew: my grandfather, born in Beaumont, Texas. He has been deceased for 17 years now, and I have a certified copy of his death certificate and birth certificate, which established a parental connection and birth location.
His birth certificate2 indicated the following about his mother:
- Her name was Mollie M. Monroe.
- Her age was 38 on her last birthday when he was born in 1917, which allowed me to estimate her birth year as 1879.
- She was born in Hickory, Mississippi.
- She had 5 living children as of 1917.
Ready, Set, Search
I now had enough information to begin searching Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. I first looked for vital records and browsed through many images from uploaded microfilm on FamilySearch and was able to locate her death certificate.3
Her death certificate was a treasure trove of information:
I was able to locate the following missing information needed on her death certificate:
- Complete birth date: 24 Feb 1879 (could be incorrect)
- Death date: 20 May 1927
- She died at age 48 when my grandfather was 10 years old.
- Where she lived: 2485 Neches St., Beaumont, Texas
- My great-grandfather was the informant: Mr. Thos M. Brand
- Her parents’ names and birthplaces:
- Mary [Malinda] McGee, Mississippi
- Mr. J.M. Monroe, Newton County, Mississippi
- Cause of death: Brain tumor (right eyebrow), which caused epilepsy due to pressure. She had the tumor for four years.
- She was hospitalized at Hotel Dieu Hospital from 12 May 1927 to her death on 20 May 1927.
Constraints & Path Forward
Understanding the constraints that could affect my research and results was critical.
- Mollie was born in Newton, Mississippi, a burned county. So, I knew the likelihood of finding records before 1911 was slim due to a courthouse fire5 that occurred the same year. The county courthouse lost everything except some land and trust deeds saved in the Chancery Clerk’s office.
- Another constraint was that birth records were not kept then, so I knew I would have to rely on vital records and indirect data to piece her story together.
Stay tuned for Part II.
Part II will explore census data and other vital information found to finish telling Mollie’s story.
Footnotes
- Image of Mollie M. Brand, privately held by the Author.
- Texas Department of State Health Services, Vital Statistics Unit, Certificate of Birth for Alton Woodrow Brand, born 27 Nov 1917, Orange County; photocopy in possession of Author, 11 Nov 2024.
- “Texas, Deaths, 1890-1977,” Death Certificate, entry for Mollie Monroe Brand, 20 May 1927, Beaumont, Texas, File # 17020.
- Hotel Dieu Hospital, Beaumont, Texas. Hotel Dieu Hospital, Beaumont, Texas – McGovern Historical Center. (n.d.). https://archives.library.tmc.edu/ic091-beau-06-2
- Newton County Courthouse Fire of 1911 https://www.msgw.org/newton/courthousefire.html
[…] diving into the story of my great-grandmother, Mollie Macephius Monroe Brand. Please head over to part one if you have not yet read […]