In the 1960s, when family genealogist Berry Greenwood began compiling family records, he entered a question mark for the death date of his aunt, Addie Greathouse Bracken. They were separated in age by 13 years, but he hadn’t seen her in more than 30 years, didn’t know her whereabouts, or if she was still alive. Addie would’ve been in her late 80s.
Berry contacted relatives, including one of Addie’s nieces, Faye Phelps, and asked about their missing aunt. “So far as I know, no one has ever heard from her or of her since she told them they wouldn’t see her again and got on the train and left,” came Faye’s response.
Addie severed ties with her family and disappeared after the death of her husband, Jim Bracken. The Brackens had married in 1907. Jim was in England on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary. The next day he booked passage on a ship to return to the U.S. Jim was among the 1,500 passengers and crew who lost his life in the early hours of April 15, 1912, when that ship, the R.M.S. Titanic, plunged into the Atlantic after striking an iceberg nearly three hours earlier.
The tragedy’s impact upon Jim Bracken’s widow unfolds in a 15-minute video by Addie’s great-grandnephew, GenealogyMagazine.com editor James Pylant. Titanic Widow: The Mystery of Addie Bracken is told with previously unpublished family photographs, correspondence, and documents.
Titanic Widow: The Mystery of Addie Bracken now available on YouTube.