Benjamin Brahe Sorensen

Benjamin — . [Group Sheet]

Notes:

I have a copy of his birth certificate.

Richard married Lois Edna REMINGTON 16 Jun 1973, North Kingstown, RI. Lois (daughter of Norman Chester REMINGTON and Edna Virginia BERRY) was born 1 May 1951, Providence, RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

I was born on a Tuesday.

My son Paul was born on my birthday in 1979. He was my best birthday present ever!

Notes:

Paul was born at Norsgade 30, Aarhus, Denmark. His baptism took place at home on 18 April, and his confirmation in Aarhus Domkirke on 1 Jan 1915.

Paul married Katherine Ann Nikolaisen 15 Jan 1950, Ormslev Kirke, Denmark. Katherine (daughter of Niels Peder Nikolaisen and Ann Katrine Bothilde Sorensen) was born 17 Jan 1914, Minneapolis, Hennepin Co., MN; died 3 Mar 2008, Warwick, Kent Co., RI; was buried 6 Mar 2008, Quidnessett Memorial Cemetery, North Kingstown, RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

The surname in Denmark and on her marriage license is spelled Nicolaisen. However, the family name in America was spelled Nikolaisen. An alternative spelling in Denmark is Nicolajsen.

Notes:

I have two copies of their marriage certificate, one from Aarhus and one from Aabyhoj.

Notes:

I have two different copies of his birth certificate, one a card issued at Coventry, RI, and the other a paper from the RI Dept. of Health. I am told he was born on a Tuesday.

My dad Norman was born on the family farm off Knotty Oak Rd. in Coventry, RI. We have some pictures of the farm (see Remington section of the photo gallery, "Remington brothers together," at our web site). Tragically, the two-family farmhouse burned down when my dad was six years old. After this, his family moved into a shanty and stayed there for a while. Quoted below are some reminiscences from my dad Norman about his grandmother Angeretta (Whitford) Remington, about the big farmhouse, and about the fire there. They always believed the fire was set. The adjoining farm belonged to my dad's uncle, John Francis (we called him Uncle Fran), who kept cows there even when I was a child in the 1950s. We used to go blueberrying there, and I was afraid of being confronted face-to-face by a cow, which did actually happen once! In very recent years that property has passed out of our family, and part of it is now a new plat. One of the streets is Remington Farm Drive. On an old map, I've seen that another Remington may have owned that land adjacent to my great uncle.

About the farmhouse: "There were two front doors. The first one as one approached from the road led into a long hall way extending the width of the main section of the house. At the end was the door opening into the ell kitchen. Doors on the left were to my Grandmother's bedroom (used whenever she was with us) and to a downstairs bedroom. At a right angle to that was the door to the cellar stairs. The stairway to the upstairs rooms began near the door to the kitchen. From the right side of the hall were doors to the parlor (as it was called in those days) and the dining room.

"Grandma's bedroom windows were between the front doors. The second one was Aunt Velna's front door, which opened into a small entry, from which a door to the left led into her parlor.

"My grandmother [Angeretta] was a practical nurse, attending women about to give birth and for some time afterwards. Confinements lasted several days at that time. Between work opportunities she would be on the farm, sleeping in her room in our house, where the furnishings were hers. So my earliest memories are that she was with us from time to time. When she was there she was a great help to my mother. Later on she also worked as a housekeeper/cook. When I was in the second grade she kept house for a Mrs. Maynard (or Menard), who was legally blind. This was on Boston Street, Anthony, which is off the main street directly opposite the big mill.

"The fire destroyed the house December 27, 1924. It was discovered some time before daybreak, when my mother thought my father was trying to waken her. Later, she always said she thought it was an angel. Anyway, she smelled smoke, and woke my father. Our collie dog, Major, usually was in the kitchen overnight (no doubt, during cold weather), and he pushed open the door to the hall, again no doubt because of flames and heat. All of us were out of the house, and in my father's truck, in the big meadow across the driveway from the house, while it was still dark."

Dad enlisted at Providence, RI, on 29 Aug 1942, as a Private in the US Army. He was a resident of Providence, married, an insurance clerk with 2 years of college; height 74 inches and weight 158 lbs.

Norman married Edna Virginia BERRY 6 Sep 1941, Providence, RI. Edna (daughter of John Holland BERRY and Ellen COLEMAN) was born 25 Mar 1918, Providence, RI; died 20 Nov 2010, Warwick, Kent Co., RI; was buried 24 Nov 2010, Woodland Cemetery, Washington & Knotty Oak Sts., Coventry, RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

My Mom says:
Until I was about ten years old, the only heat we had as I remember was the kitchen stove. On Saturday nights we took our baths in a big tin tub such as we have in our back yard here. We had our hair washed and fine combed to see if we had acquired any critters during the week at school. My parents slept in a room off the kitchen, but the rest of us were upstairs in two bedrooms where there was no heat. I think we closed off the parlor most of the time. It was a very small house.

Mom noted in her birthday book that she was born on a Monday.

Notes:

I have a copy of their marriage certificate. They were married three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor which brought America into World War II.

Dad & Mom were engaged on 27 Jan 1941.

Notes:

Julius was born in the area called Mols, Denmark. It is a peninsula north of Aarhus.

Julius married Hilda Katrina Christiansen 28 May 1908, Vor Frue Kirke, Aarhus, Denmark. Hilda (daughter of Carl Wilhelm Christjansen and Ane Marie Christiansen) was born 30 Nov 1880, Terslev Mark, Overdrev, Sjaelland, Denmark; died Abt 23 Mar 1942, Aabyhoj, Denmark; was buried Abt 25 Mar 1942, Aabyhoj, Denmark. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Her name is sometimes spelled as: Hilda Cathrine Christjansen.

Denmark was taken over by the Germans in 1936. World War II was raging. Just before Hilda died in 1942, she said she was so glad that America had entered the war, because that meant that Denmark would be liberated.

Notes:

As a young man, Peter Nils Nikolaisen (Katherine Sorensen's father), went to stay with his Uncle Jorgen for two years. He told how all the corn was harvested by hand. A couple of years later Jorgen's brother, Uncle Hans, got a harvesting machine. Every morning the cows were brushed. It was considered a shame to take out a horse with dirt on it.

Peder and Katrine came to America in May 1911, and were married later that year.

Niels married Ann Katrine Bothilde Sorensen 19 Sep 1911, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, MN. Ann (daughter of Soren Sorensen and Ane Katrine Brahe Christensen) was born 24 Jan 1888, Tved, Mols, Denmark; died 6 Aug 1974, Minneapolis, Hennepin Co., MN; was buried 10 Aug 1974, Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, MN. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Katrine's mother died within the year after Katrine was born. Her father remarried in 1892. Trine loved her father very much and he was particularly fond of her, too. At one of his places of employment, she would bring him his lunch. She also loved her step-mother, Kirstine, and cried when she received the news in America that she had died.

After Trine's grandmother on her mother's side died, the grandfather married again. He was a very good carpenter -- a builder -- but Trine saw him only occasionally. The step--grandmother lived on Mols, and Trine went there frequently to visit and spend vacation days.

Notes:

I have a photocopy of the ship's manifest showing their names when they came to Ellis Island on 31 May 1911.

Notes:

I have a photocopy of his original birth entry at Coventry, Book of Births for 1894, p. 98. His gravestone has been photographed.

Apparently Chester & Laura and family were not listed in the 1920 Federal Census, nor were their Whitford cousins who lived with them in the duplex farmhouse on Knotty Oak Rd., Coventry, RI.

However, in the 1925 Rhode Island Census they are on Hope Rd., Coventry.

This family farm, located on what is now Old Hope Lane, was called the Linden Farm in the old days, because the driveway was lined with beautiful linden trees. My grandfather kept a herd of cows and had a milk route. Their two-family farmhouse burned to the ground during the night on 27 Dec 1924, when my dad was six years old. Because the insurance had lapsed, my grandfather was not able to rebuild, so the family lived in a shanty on the property for a couple of years before moving away. This property has changed somewhat since the 1920s, but much of it remains the same -- the old stone walls, the pastures, and the lay of the land. A new house has been built in one of the pastures, the old barn has been replaced by a smaller one, and a couple of additional houses have been built along the driveway leading into the farm. It is now called Old Hope Farm.

In the 1930 Federal Census, the family is living at 365 Jackson Ave., Johnston, RI. In 1935 they were living at 1226 Plainfield St., Johnston.

In 1940 they were living at 24 Kilvert St. in Warwick, RI. Norman, Raymond, Chester, and Richard were living with their parents.

Chester married Laura Russel CHAFEE 28 Apr 1917, Coventry, Kent Co., RI. Laura (daughter of Frank Paine CHAFEE and Mary Elizabeth ANDREWS) was born 28 Apr 1899, Bristol, Bristol Co., RI; died 14 Mar 1975, Natick, Middlesex Co., MA; was buried , Woodland Cemetery, Washington & Knotty Oak Sts., Coventry, RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

I have very happy memories of my grandmother, which is one reason why I named my older daughter after her. We would often visit her on Heath Avenue in Warwick. Once I even got to spend the night with her. The next day we walked a couple of miles to the shopping center across from Aldrich Junior High. I wanted to buy some doll clothes, but she said, "I can make those for you, Dear." And she did -- beautiful ones, for our baby dolls and grown-up dolls. She did lovely embroidery, too, which she gave as gifts in the form of pillows, table and bed linens, and framed pictures. In later years, when she moved to Ashland, MA, we would usually ride up to see her on Sunday afternoons. After I learned to drive, one summer day I borrowed my dad's car and drove up there with my cousin Barbara, and we took her to the seashore for lunch. Another time I rolled her hair up for her. In the early 1970s, Rich and I would drop in on her, and get her talking about the old days. Once she got started, the stories followed one after another. She'd get out the photographs, laugh about this or that event, and often give her opinion in no uncertain terms. More than once she said she had married too young, on her 18th birthday. But I'm glad she did, because my dad was born a little over a year later, the first of six sons. What a life! I'm sure her marriage, and her whole life, had its ups and downs. At one point their farmhouse burned down, and the family had to move into a little shanty for a while. My grandparents certainly set an example of hard work and determination for generations to follow. While I never met my grandfather, I know he was proud of his children and grandchildren. My grandmother was very much a part of our family, and I only wish she had lived to be a part of the lives of my children, too.

I have copies of Laura's birth, marriage, and death certificates, plus a copy of the page from the 1900 Census at Bristol which shows her family when Laura was one year old. Also, her gravestone has been photographed.

The birth record at Bristol says she is the second child born to Frank & Mary Chafee.

Notes:

They were married on Laura's eighteenth birthday. Chester was 23.

Notes:

John's birth record at Fall River identifies his parents as John H. and Eliza A.; father's occupation seaman; father's birthplace South Carolina; mother's birthplace Fall River. (Fall River Vol.123: Pg.108)

John's marriage record to Lillie E. Shippee names his parents as John Berry & Eliza A. Elsbree. (Attleborough Vol.352: Pg.83)

John was 52 when married in September of 1912, and 70 when he died. However, the marriage certificate gives his age as 59, and the gravestone appears to give his birth year as 1854. However, the official record for his second marriage in July 1884 gives his age as 24, more in agreement with the 1859 date as recorded at Fall River, MA.

In the 1870 Federal Census, census, he is age 10, and in 1875 he is 15. At the age of 15 he is listed as a jeweler on the census.

In 1880 he and Mabel are living in Providence; he is 20 and she is 16. John "works in jewelry.".

In 1900, John H. Berry and his third wife, Laura, are living at 222 Swan St. in Providence. With them is "Eliza Alison," John's widowed mother. John's occupation is given as "silversmith." According to census data, John & Laura have been married 3 years; and, at age 19, Laura has had three children, none of whom is still living.

In the 1910 Federal Census, John & Nellie are living at 10 Bowditch Place, Providence, with their two young daughters, Helen & Loretta. The census data states that they have been married four years, and that this is a second marriage for both. Grandma Allison, age 77, is in the home. John is a silversmith in a jewelry shop, and Nellie is a bench hand in a jewelry shop.

In actuality, they were officially married in 1912, and it was a fourth marriage for John, and a second marriage for Ellen. Apparently they had been together since 1906.

From my mom, Edna:
"Both my parents worked in making jewelry, and of course you know that until recently RI was the jewelry capital of the world. That bracelet I gave you once was made of yellow gold by my father as a gift for my mother. For graduation gifts for Helen and Loretta, he gave them watches with bands made by either himself or where he worked. He gave me a bracelet which I still have, though not for graduation, since he had died by then. He had made that also. Elsie had a pendant with a semi-precious stone."

At one time I thought maybe our grandparents had twins that died. John & Ellen Berry had boy/girl twins who were born 27 Oct 1923 in Providence. They both died two hours later. However, the death records for these infants show that the parents lived in Pawtucket and were born in Scotland. There is a another couple named John & Ellen Berry in the 1930 census, living childless in Pawtucket; according to the census data they were married c 1924.

John married Ellen COLEMAN 10 Sep 1912, Providence, RI. Ellen (daughter of Joseph COLEMAN and Elizabeth SLACK) was born 4 Apr 1877, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England; died 26 Oct 1953, Warwick, RI; was buried , North Burial Ground, Providence, RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Place of birth / family residence at time of birth: 61 Plantation Street, Mansfield, Nottingham, England. She came to America when she was 17, arriving on 24 Oct 1894, along with sister Eliza and brother William. Her name on the passenger list is "Nellie Coleman."

Ellen died at home with her daughter Edna and family at 87 Darrow Drive, Warwick, RI, USA. According to the funeral booklet, she was age 76 y 6 m 22 d. The funeral was on Thursday, 29 October 1953, from 2 pm to 3:30 pm at the Juhlin-Pearson Funeral Home on Broad Street. The pastor was Joseph G. Bodie. Musical selections played were Nearer My God to Thee, Beautiful Isle of Somewhere, My Jesus I Love Thee, Rock of Ages, The City Foursquare, and Jesus Lover of My Soul. Bearers were Pasco Mitola, Wallace Powers, Norman C. Remington, and Richard Remington. Interment was at North Burial Ground, Providence, at 3:45 pm on the 29th.

Notation in my mom's birthday book: "Mother died 1953, Monday (Ellen Berry)"

According to the 1910 census, "Nellie" had 8 children of whom 3 were living at that time. I don't understand that. Did she have children who died in infancy, or were stillborn? It makes more sense if it refers to John's children; 8 born and 3 still living as far as I know. I suppose as she answered the census taker, she was referring to the family head in answering that question.