The articles were quite correct that Henri was elected to the Assembly in 1871. He strongly supported obligatory primary education, and was a firm anti-clerical. He was President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1881 to 1885, replacing Gambetta. He became Prime Minister upon the resignation of Jules Ferry, but resigned the following year. He remained a public figure, and once again became President of the Chamber from 1894 to 1898. He served yet again in 1906. 

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Henri's cousin Eugène, born on May 26, 1832 in Clamecy, France. His father, an attorney there, sent him to Bourges to study at the Lycée de Bourges. He entered the Ministry of Finance, opened a bank, and by 1874 entered political life. In 1877 he was elected General Councilor of the canton of Charost, replacing the outgoing councilor, who was none other than his uncle Louis Adolphe Brisson (Henri's father). In the municipal elections of 1878, he was appointed mayor of Bourges. The statue of Jacques Coeur* by Préault was inaugurated on May 15, 1879 by Mayor Eugène Brisson. See the Bourges' website for more.

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*Jacques Coeur was the son of a furrier born in Bourges around 1400, who rapidly rose to the top of the social ladder and became a nobleman. He built up a commercial and maritime empire, leaving Bourges with fine examples of his patronage. Though his Palace was built on the Gallo-Roman wall, he was born in the working class neighborhood of Saint Pierre-le-Marche. He was an early example of the rise of the merchant middle class, imitated in succeeding generations like perhaps Louis Brisson and his son Etienne the Elder.

Eugène Brisson and his uncle Louis Adolphe Brisson (Henri Brisson's father) are both buried in Bourges at the Cimetière des Capucins. Henri's sister Edmé Amelie married Eugène, making the two men bothers-in-law as well as cousins, and adding a bit of confusion. The photo of their tomb is shown below. After his father passed away, Henri Brisson rented a comfortable home for his mother Adelaide in the parish of Saint Pierre-le-Guillard, and visited her often when she fell ill (La Libre Parole, 7 October 1898). When Adelaide passed away in January 1896, she was buried in Saint Pierre-le-Guillard.

Henri Brisson and his wife Julie were laid to rest at Paris's Cimetière Monmartre, in a tomb that also reposes the remains of her parents. 

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While Brisson researchers may have been mistaken about the generational relationship between Huldah's husband and the President of the French Chamber of Deputies, there may be more to the story. The Bourges parish of St Pierre-le-Guillard, where Henri Brisson and his parents and sisters lived, is only 4 blocks from the parish of St Pierre-le-Marché where Anthony D. Brisson's ancestors lived. After researching Henri Brisson's genealogy, I discovered that his 3rd great-grandfather (Etienne, born 29 May 1674) was both baptized and married in the parish church of St Pierre-le-Marché. This was precisely the time period that Louis Brisson's father Pierre Brisson* and mother Jeanne Germain resided there. Pierre and Etienne may have been brothers, sons of Claude Brisson.

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*The great Pierre Brisson is mentioned by Roland Narboux as another cousin of the outgoing mayor ("Cette liste Mirpied-Lamy, soutenue par le grand Pierre Brisson, cousin du maire sortant"). There are two references in the Bourges archives inventories of Pierre curating young cutler apprentices (Julien Meillard, Nicolas Germain) around 1702.

I have not yet located baptism records that verify this relationship, but further research is underway. Therefore, although Henri and Anthony were not brothers as alleged by the Bulletin, Henri Brisson and Anthony Brisson families are related through a common ancestor.

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