Question of the Week: Have you found a connection to a Titanic passenger?

+17 votes
1.6k views

April 15 marks the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Have you found a connection to a Titanic passenger? Did you know we have a list? Project:Titanic

John Jacob Astor, one of the victims of the sinking, will be featured in the Connection Finder next week so you'll be able to see how you are connected to him. 

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in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.5m points)
reshown by Eowyn Walker

Alma Cornelia (Berglund) Pålsson (Berglund-93) is my wife's great-grandfather's sister. 

19 degrees by marriage on my father's side! Where's my cut! ha ha ha
charles joseph shorney Shorney-29 is a cousin of mine
I don't know!

Do we have the passenger list..probably not.  However it has to be out there somewhere!!!

Taylor
John Jacob Astor IV is 11th cousin 6 times removed
If you click on Project: Titanic it will take you to the passenger lists.
I have no one that was on the Titanic. However my aunt Lillian Edelstein was born in April, 1912, the month that the Titanic sank.
Janet,

I found the passenger lists, but there is no way for me to tell if I  am related to anyone on the ship as so many different names are involved in my ancestry.  I am still learning the many different names.

I was hoping Wikitree would set it up so we can see if we were related to anyone on the ship?

Taylor
Wow.  That project page has some next-level organization.  Mad kudos to them.

20 Answers

+14 votes
What a great question!!
by Robynne Lozier G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
+11 votes
I have ancestors profiled on WT who immigrated a year after the Titanic sunk. They crossed the Atlantic on the Carpathia, the ship that rescued Titanic survivors.

http://titanic-titanic.com/carpathia.shtml
by Bart Triesch G2G6 Pilot (270k points)
+13 votes
I don't have any connection to anyone on the Titanic, but I am a Titanic buff. I was able to visit the museum in Orlando last year! Awesome.
by Debbie Parsons G2G6 Pilot (150k points)
+11 votes
I think I have ancestors who were on the Titanic. They were a missionary family - the father had sent the wife and kids back to the U.S. and he did not board. Being a woman and children, they survived.

I need to find the details, names, etc.
by V Long G2G1 (1.5k points)
+13 votes
Yes.  My grandmother's Aunt was a survivor.
by Chris Gilbert G2G6 Mach 3 (35.4k points)
edited by Chris Gilbert
+12 votes

First class passenger John Borland Thayer, Jr. is  my 8th cousin through my Borden - Lawton ancestry. His body was never recovered.  His wife,  Marian Longstreth Morris, son John Borland "Jack" Thayer III and their maid all escaped safely. The son, Jack Thayer III would later commit suicide in 1945.

by James Stratman G2G6 Pilot (103k points)
+13 votes

Yes, my grandmother's cousin was the infamous Lady Duff-Gordon.

by Laurie Cruthers G2G6 Pilot (165k points)
+14 votes

I came across this newspaper article on "FACEBOOK" sometime in Oct 2015. I was intrigued with the story and had to see if any of the folks were on WikiTree, and we did!!  So I adopted Helen Loraine Allison (1909 - 1912) https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allison-1615 .

Upon further research found this: "American newspapers had an advantage over the British press, since survivors of the Titanic were brought to New York City. American newspapers had reporters in place when the first inquiry into the disaster was held by the U.S. Senate at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, the day after the survivors landed. The New York Herald April 15, 1912 headline, "The Titanic Sinks with 1,800 on Board; Only 675, Mostly Woman and Children, Saved". A complete description of the Titanic Disaster Newspaper Archive can be found at:   http://www.paperlessarchives.com/titanic_newspaper_archive.html

by Dorothy Barry G2G Astronaut (2.7m points)
+8 votes
I have an ancestor who worked for Captain Haddock who gave evidence at the enquiry as he was the captain of the Olympic and actually brought the Titanic to Southampton from Ireland for its maiden and only voyage. I have photos of him and his family and information regarding his family.
by Hilary Gadsby G2G6 Pilot (315k points)
+9 votes
My sixth cousin three times removed was John Jacob Astor IV (Astor-2) who perished on the Titanic.
by Kurt Moore G2G1 (1.8k points)
+9 votes
I have no direct connection to the Titanic, but the stories are all around me! I remember my Scottish Grandma telling me a friend of their family was on the Titanic, but I never did find out who it was. An Anglican Priest I knew had Irish ancestors who missed the sailing of the Titanic.

I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A ship from here, the MacKay-Bennett went out and retrieved bodies from the Titanic and brought them into Halifax. There are a great number of Titanic graves at Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, and Mount Olivet Cemetery in Halifax. There is one grave of special note - that marked To an Unknown Child, a child of 2 years old. In later years they found the baby was actually Sidney Leslie Goodwin.
by Linda Hockley G2G6 Mach 1 (14.5k points)
+9 votes
A first cousin of mine, Eva Georgetta 'Ettie' Dean (nee. Light) was a survivor along with her two children, Bertram Vere Dean and Elizabeth Gladys Millvina Dean. I believe Elizabeth was the last living survivor to die, 31 May 2009. Eva's husband Bertram Frank Dean's body was never recovered. Eva's mother, Alice Maud Mary Light (nee. Norbury) was my 3rd gt aunt.
by
+8 votes
I just took a look through the first class passengers, and found a handful that I'm distantly related to.

John Jacob Astor is my 8th cousin 2x removed.

Jessica Hatfield is my 11th cousin 1x removed.

Cosmo Duff-Gordon is my 8th cousin 6x removed.

Herbert Chaffee is my 7th cousin 5x removed.

Emma Eliza Bucknell is my 9th cousin 3x removed.

 

So, to answer the question, yes. Distantly, but yes lol.
by Chris Jean-Louis G2G Crew (440 points)
edited by Chris Jean-Louis
+8 votes

While not a Titanic passenger, my first cousin, three times removed Francis Edward McGee is my connection to the Titanic.

Frank was a doctor and he was serving the Carpathia's physician at the time of the Titanic's crash. The Carpathia and her crew came to the aid of the Titanic and they were pivotal in rescuing hundreds of passengers.

Frank must have developed a strong love for seafaring, because from 1918 to 1921 he was a merchant navy seaman.

I know that he was married but have not learned yet about his wife and children.

by Clare Spring G2G6 Mach 7 (75.0k points)
+7 votes
yes, i just discovered through my relationship finder, i am 16th cousins 4x removed from John Jacob Astor 1V. Through my dads ( Lawson) side of the family.
by Becky Gouge G2G3 (3.9k points)
+7 votes
Madeleine Force is John Jacob wife who was one of the survivors. She is my 6th cousin. Madeleine and I are both descendants of Mathew Force.
by Bill Palfy G2G Crew (870 points)
+7 votes
Bess (Daniels) Allison -11th cousins 3x removed

Loraine Allison, Trevor Hudson Allison- 12th cousins 2x removed

Kornelia Andrews- 20th cousins 8x removed

Thomas Andrews Jr- 21st cousins 1x removed

John Jacob Astor IV- 9th cousins 5x removed

Emma Eliza (Ward) Bucknell - 9th cousin 3x removed

Herbert Chaffee- 7th cousins 5x removed

Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gordon- 13th cousins 4x removed

Anna (Andrews) Hogeboom- 20th cousins 8x removed

Gretchen Fiske (Longley) Leopold- 21st cousins 7x removed

Milton Long- 18th cousins 3x removed

John Thayer III- 10th cousins 5x removed.

John Thayer Jr- 9th cousins 6x removed
by Tina Chase G2G6 Mach 3 (31.3k points)
+8 votes
I have not found a connection yet, but everyone says that I look like Rose's mother on the Titanic.
by Cheryl Hess G2G Astronaut (1.8m points)
+8 votes
Yes my 5x grandfathers Jonas Mayzes was the grandfather of Thomas Jubilee Mayzes. He was a Fireman and survived, escaping on lifeboat 3, and rescued by the Carpathia.

Sadly he past away in 1928 of Typhoid fever,in his final hours, in a fever he was heard to shout `save the women and children `

Jules
by Jules Charman G2G5 (5.8k points)
+7 votes
My friends tell me I look like Rose's mother.
by Cheryl Hess G2G Astronaut (1.8m points)

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