Cinai Brown~Who Are Her Parents?

 
Sinai Brown was born about 1817, most likely in Alabama. On 18 November 1834, Miss Cinai Brown and Thomas Jefferson Hamrick were married in Monroe County, Alabama. ¹
 

 
This PDF and a book entitled "The First Hundred Year of the Pine Spring Community", by Mary Ellen New White states that Sinai/Cinai Brown and her brother Randolph (Randall) Brown are siblings and the children of John H. Brown and his wife Sarah Rivers.

Excerpt from PDF ²


Excerpt from Book ³


Hamrick researchers reports that Cinai/Sinai Brown died about 1846 and Thomas Jefferson Hamrick married Sabrina/Sebena “Sibby” Phillips in the Winter of 1846. If she passed away in 1846 she left behind six children; 4 sons and 2 daughters. They were in order of birth Elimira, John B., Margaret, Thomas Jefferson, Jr., John C. and James Madison Hamrick.

No marriage license had been found, to my knowledge, thus there are researchers that think that only one marriage took place and the Cinai, Sinai, Sabena and Syrena are the same person/wife. Both Sinai Brown and Sabena Philips are said to have been born in 1817.

For 38 years I have researched the John H. Brown and Sarah “Sallie” Rivers and can say without doubt that Cinai/Sinai Brown and Randolph/Randall Brown are not the children of John H. Brown and Sarah Rivers. John and Sarah had the following children: ⁴

•  Frederick Epps Brown, b. abt 1802
• William Lafayette Brown, b. abt 1807
• Epps Rivers Brown, b. abt 1810
• John R. Brown, b. Oct 1813
• Martha Brown, b. abt 1818
• Henry Epps Brown, b. 28 May 1820
• Stephen Brown, b. abt 1823
• Nancy Brown, b. abt 1831
• James D. Brown, b. abt 1832

When John Brown died on 14 September 1855, all his living children and the children of his deceased son were named in his estate. If Sinai/Cinai Brown had been his daughter her children would have been named with the Estate file just as his deceased son John R, Brown children were listed. ⁵
 


This is one of the prime reasons I say that Cinai/Sinai and Randolph/ Randall are not children of John H. Brown, b. 1785 in Chesterfield County, SC and died 14 September 1855 in Lauderdale County, Mississippi. 
 
During this time period 1817-1880 there were two Cinai/Sinai Brown in Lauderdale County, Mississippi. They were:

• Cinai/Sinai Brown, b. 1817, wife of Thomas Jefferson Hamrick died about 1846.

• Cinai/Sinai Brown, b. 18 March 1841; married 16 January, 1861, Oliver G. Brown; died 20 April 1862. This Sinai Brown was the daughter of John Wesley Brown, Jr. and his wife Eliza Davison. Dates form the Family Bible of John Wesley Brown, Jr. ⁶

This family, the John Wesley Brown Family, is the only family that I have found that has the name Sinai/Cinai in their family tree. There’s a high probability that Sinai, b. 1817 is a sibling of John Wesley Brown, b. 1813. Elmira, the oldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sinai Brown, named a daughter Sinai Houston.

The John Wesley Brown Family is out of Virginia and Kentucky. The John H. Brown and Sarah Rivers family left Chesterfield County, South Carolina shortly after their marriage in the early 1800 and migrated to Georgia/Alabama where John H. Brown served in the War of 1812 and eventually settled in Lauderdale County, Mississippi. Several of their children moved to Union County Arkansas and after John’s death in September 1855, his wife Sarah went to Arkansas to be with her son Epps Rivers Brown and died there about 1871.

There’s still a lot of research needed to identify the parents of Sinai/Cinai Brown. If you know who her parents are please contact me. I’m convinced that she is in no way connected to my line – the John H. and Sarah Rivers Brown Family.








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[1] “The Hambrick-Hamrick Family History” page 17, a pdf downloaded from - http://www.kithandkinofthesouth.org/uploads/2/6/2/1/2621480/hamrick.pdf
[2] Ibid.
[3] Mary Ellen New White, The First Hundred Years of the Pine Springs Community: of Lauderdale County, Mississippi (Meridian, Mississippi: LCDA&H, Inc., 1992), page 22.
[4] Lauderdale County, Mississippi, Probate Court Estates, Filebox 31: No 253, John H. Brown.
[5] Ibid.
[6] The John Wesley Brown Jr. Family Bible, 4 zeroxed pages.