Sinking of The Empress of Ireland 1914

On 29 May 1914 the Empress of Ireland collided with another ship in the St. Lawrence River. It sank with 1,477 passengers on board. It sank in less than 15 minutes and an estimated  1,032 people died.

See a partial passenger list and photos at Empress of Ireland - Canada's Titantic.



Credit: Image Empress of Ireland from Library and Archives Canada, PA-116389 /

The Poignant Story of a Lost Child on the Titantic

RMS Titantic List of 1st Class Passengers Who Drowned - Allison Family
Ancestry.com. UK, RMS Titanic, Deaths at Sea, 1912

A 2 year old child, thought to be lost when the Titanic sank, is at the crux of this story. Lorraine Allison and her parents were all reported as dead but only her father's body was ever recovered.

Years later a woman  named Helen Kramer came forward claiming to be Lorraine and stating she had been rescued but no one knew who she was. The Allisons were a wealthy Canadian family and refused to accept that Helen was Lorraine, believing it was a hoax to obtain money.

Helen  and her family waged a long war to be accepted by the Allison family. In the end DNA evidence revealed the truth - that she was not Lorraine. However the years of insisting she was indeed Lorraine resulted in a great deal of drama including restraining orders imposed by the Allison family.

The very intriguing and you can read more about it at Lost child of the Titanic and the fraud that haunted her family

This story intrigued me so I did a little research on the family. Hudson Allison, Lorraine's father is found in the 1901 census living in Chesterville Ontario, which happens to be where the Allison family burial ground is located. Hudson was born in 1881 in Winchester Township, Dundas County Ontario. His birth registration found on Ancestry.com shows him given the name Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison by his parents  Jessie R. Allison and Phebe [sic] Johnston.

October 1909 saw the family of Hudson, wife Bessie and daughter Helen Lorraine sail from Montreal to England on board The Megantic. Hudson appears to have been a frequent traveler, no doubt for his business as he also appears on the passenger list for the Campania sailing from Liverpool England to New York in April 1911.
In fact the 1911 census for England shows him staying at the Carlton Hotel in London. He is listed as a 30 year old Financial Broker.

He also appears in the 1911 Census for Canada with his wife Bessie, 24, born in Wisconsin and his two children Lorraine 2 and baby Hudson 5 months old. Further research shows that his wife Bessie was born in Wisconsin to Arville and Sarah Daniels.

The Allison family memorial is found in Chesterille Ontario and shows that baby Hudson was rescued but died at the age of 18.

The Portland Press Herald printed a death notice for Hudson Trevor Allison on Friday August 9th 1929. It read:

"Ocean Park, Aug 8 -- Hudson Trevor Ellison [sic] age 18, of Westmount, P.Q, who had been passing a vacation with his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Hudson Ellsion[sic] on Seaside Avenue, died Thursday after a short illness as the result of ptomaine poisoning. The body was taken during the day to Chesterville, P.Q for burial."

Photo of Allison Family Memorial by Shirley Hacket on Find-A-Grave published as permitted by photographer

Titanic's Unknown Child Given New, Final Identity

A very poignant story has emerged about the identity of a young child aged about 2 years old, whose body was recovered when the Titantic sank. The child's identity was not known and he was buried in an umarked grave in Halifax Nova Scotia. Over the years different identities were attached to this child and published as fact but recent DNA extraction has proven with 96% accuracy that the child  was 19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin from England.

A pair of brown leather shoes helped substantiate the identity.

Little Sidney was travelling with his parents, Frederick and Augusta Goodwin and five siblings. The family was headed from England to Niagara New York. None of the bodies of the rest of Sidneys' family has ever been recovered so little Sidney lies alone in his unmarked grave.

Read more about this story and view photos of Sidney as a baby and a group photograph of his family on Live Science.

A Titantic Connection

Recently a cousin of my husband, Diana Bobo, sent hubs an email saying he has a connection to a man who died when the Titantic sank on April 15, 1912.

The man's name was George Graham, and Diana sent an outline showing how George connected to my husband. When I entered the names into my FTM program, it immediately showed me that

"George Graham is the brother of the brother-in-law of the sister-in-law of the father-in-law of the sister-in-law of the great grand-aunt of xxx" (xxx being my husband)

Phew. That's quite a mouthful! Basically the connection is:

   HUMPHREY                       HOBBS
           |                                 |
George -- Humphrey md Bessie -- Mary md William McCutcheon

McCUTCHEON
         |
William -- Charles       STONE
                  |                |
                John m Alma -- Roy md Jenny Facey

Jenny Facey was the sister of my husband's great grandmother Mary Louise Facey

I had a look for George Graham and found some interesting data online. (Google is my friend!)

Note that George was born in St. Mary's Ontario Canada which is where my husband was born too. Small world. He has ancestral ties there on both sides of his family tree, going back to the early 1800s when St. Mary's was first settled.

Co-incidence? Or something else? In another odd twist, I too have a Titanic connection through William Thomas Stead who also was among those who died when the ship sank. This connection is through my great grandmother Sarah Stead who was born in England and is distantly related to William Thomas Stead.

It's interesting to find out about these connections to a famous event or person. I bet we all have one or two.