Thanks everyone who replied. Here are the results so far...
According to 1860 Census (Indiana) there was an Alpha Cramer - age 7,
so a birth date of 17 Aug 1853 as listed in the marriage records
would be correct. The marriage record states that Benjamin Bricker
was born in Nov. 1851 and the marriage took place 13 Nov 1870. All
that seems reasonable up to this point. There is also a second record
of a marriage of Benjamin Bricker (same one, since the birth date is
the same) and he marries Margarett A. Jarrett (Alpha's brother was
married to a Jarrett , and another Cramer was also married to a
Jarrett!)
CJ was kind enough to go out the cemetery to check the stones - and
there is a big possibility that the stones may have been misread, but
that was 40 or so years ago, and the stones have changed during that
time. So, the tombstone really says "Clarence", not Charlie, died 27
Sep 1872, and he was aged 17 years, 2 months and 12 days, so he was
born around the same time as my Alpha Cramer. It was probably a
different Bricker (one book says Jemima, which I took as a shortened
version of Benjamin). And the "Nettie" I was looking for was probably
"Elvira", daughter of John and Emma - so, these children are not the
children on my couple!
Very likely that Alpha and Ben divorced with no children. There is an
Alpha who shows up later in Ohio, back where others in my family come
from!
So, with all your detective work and notes, I think this has been
straightened out. I guess we all need to be very careful using the
information we find! Nothing beats being at the scene and correcting
the mistakes. Again, thanks to all who wrote back.
Craig
Can someone please check their resources on the Bricker family for
me. According to the Noble county cemetery records Charlie and
Nettie Bricker were children of Alpha and Jemima (Benjamin) Bricker.
The tombstones read:
Charlie Bricker Sep 30, 1872 6y 3m 24d
Nettie Bricker Sep 20, 1872 4y 3m 16d
So this seems to imply that Charlie and Nettie died in 1872 while young.
According to the Noble County Marriage records, Alpha A. Cramer was
born 17 Aug 1853 and Benjamin Bricker was born Nov 1851. They were
married 13 Nov 1870. If the children DIED in 1872, then Benjamin was
14 when the children were born and Alpha was almost 13.
Is it possible/probable that the dates on the tombstone are suppose
to be birth dates and someone transcribed them wrong (maybe they are
twins). Does anyone know if the dates should be 20 Sep or 30 Sep?
Anyone with better information?