Alvin Ellis was born about 1832 in Morgan County, Ohio and died 12 Sept 1857 in a shipwreck. He was a "Forty-Niner." He and his wife were returning to Ohio from San Francisco on the ship "Central America." The ship sunk off the coast of South Carolina and he went down with the ship. She had four children in her care, perhaps one belonged to her brother.

Source: Genevieve Ellis Gross.