Granville Brett Railey

A home builder from Como, North Carolina

Granville Brett Railey was born on 20 April 1907 at Como, a small community in Hertford County, North Carolina, the third of five children of Edward Jester Railey and Elizabeth Maud Brett. The 1910 and 1920 censuses find him still at home at Maneys Neck, in the same county.

His obituary says he came to Jacksonville, Florida, in 1930, when he was 23. In the autumn of 1934 the Florida Times-Union announced his engagement to Margaret Avent, a Jacksonville banker's daughter, and printed her photograph. By the 1935 census they were listed as husband and wife. In 1940 he was working as a salesman, and in 1950 in a sales department.

In time he became a home builder and the president of a company called Practical Homes Inc. He died at home in Jacksonville on 21 November 1968, aged 61, and was buried at Oaklawn Cemetery. The Times-Union headed its notice 'Railey Funeral Set; Home Builder Here', and the Herald back in Ahoskie, North Carolina, carried the news to his old neighbours.

Margaret outlived him by more than twenty years and died in Jacksonville in March 1992.

How we know

• Census records for 1910, 1920, 1935, 1940 and 1950
• Florida Times-Union, 30 September 1934 (engagement) and 22 November 1968 (funeral notice)
• The Herald, Ahoskie, North Carolina, 22 November 1968
• Cemetery and obituary records for Oaklawn Cemetery, Jacksonville

Timeline

1. 1907Born in Como, North Carolina
2. 1910Lived in Manneys Neck, Hertford, North Carolina
3. 1920Lived in Maneys Neck, Hertford, North Carolina
4. 1935Lived in Precinct 15, Duval, Florida
5. 1940Lived in 29th Precinct, Duval, Florida
6. 1941Lived in Jacksonville, Duval, Florida
7. 1944Lived in Jacksonville, Florida
8. 1950Lived in Jacksonville, Duval, Florida
9. 1968Died in Jacksonville, Duval, Florida
10. UndatedLived in Jacksonville, Fla.
11. UndatedBuried in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida