A Name at Last: Identifying the Unknown Child of the Titanic
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
American Cemetery, July 2004 A Name at Last: Identifying the Unknown Child Of the Titanic BY CALVIN SUN f all the frustrations that face ment at city-owned Fairview Lawn author of “Titanic Remembered: The a funeral dire c t o r, few ex- C e m e t e ry. Set among 120 other Ti- Unsinkable Ship and Halifax,” Ruff- Oceed that of having an un- tanic markers, that of the Unknown man has spent hours at the cemeter- named decedent. Interring a “John” Child of the Titanic (as the boy came ies and at the Public Archives of or a “Jane Doe” means no re l a t i v e s to be known) reads: Nova Scotia, which houses records of to notify, no family to counsel and no Erected the re c o v e ry operation. Over 40 fu- real name to engrave. After the Ti- to the memory neral directors from the Canadian tanic disaster, funeral directors faced of an Maritime Provinces, led by John this problem in preparing bodies that unknown child Snow of J.A. Snow Funeral Home in had been re t u rned to Halifax, Nova whose remains Halifax, took part in that operation. Scotia, the city from which the recov- were recovered For some time, Ruffman had been ery operation was based. Of the 209 after the investigating the identity of another bodies that were brought there, 150 disaster to victim at Fairv i e w, body #281, and a re interred in three cemeteries and the Titanic was working with the Revere n d over 40 of them remain unidentified. April 15, 1912 Canon David Browning of Fonthill, One of the most poignant stories Ontario. Browning, rector of the An- of these victims involves a young boy. For 90 years, the boy lay unidenti- glican Holy Trinity Parish, is clerg y- Known officially as body #4, he car- fied at Fairv i e w. Then in 2002, a man to the family of victim and ried no identification. The crew of team of researchers finally gave him a crewmember Catherine J. Wallis, and the ship that re c o v e red him, moved name. was serving as a go-between to pro- by his plight, contributed toward s Halifax geologist Alan Ruff m a n tect their then-desire for anonymity. the boy’s funeral, marker and inter- has long been a Titanic student. The They long believed that Mrs. Wa l l i s 36 ■ American Cemetery July 2004 C e m e t e r y L o r e American Cemetery, July 2004 was body #281, and had come to other children (all of whom died) (which is specific to an individual), R u ffman (through Browning) for w e re traveling to Chicago to join mtDNA remains the same acro s s help. Nils, who had gone before them. multiple generations of a family, In re s e a rching the Wallis case, None of the children ever were offi- being passed from mother to child. R u ffman apparently had reached an cially re c o v e red. However, the coro- The analysis re q u i red a miniscule impasse. Then, in the late summer of n e r’s re c o rds for body #4 contained sample of human remains (specifical- 1999, he connected with Dr. Ry a n the notation “Baby Pålsson (?),” thus ly, only about one gram), so that only P a rr, at the time co-director of the causing Ruffman and the others to a partial rather than a full exhuma- Paleo-DNA Laboratory at Lakehead consider Gösta as a candidate. tion would be required. University in Ontario. Parr had been R u ffman also believed that body Ruffman successfully located living identifying, via DNA analysis, famil- #240 could be 22-year-old Charles J. m a t e rnal relatives of Gösta Pålsson, ial relationships at a Roman-Byzan- Shorney. Unlike the case of body #4, and also located relatives of Charles tine cemetery in Egypt. After seeing a no notations re g a rding identity ap- Shorney. Because the latter were not television special about the unidenti- pear in the re c o rds for body #240. maternal relatives, their mtDNA was fied Titanic victims, and wanting to H o w e v e r, Ruffman knew from his of no use to Parr. However, the become involved, he called the Hali- work that body #240 and Shorn e y S h o rney relatives did give the team fax-based Maritime Museum of the were close in age. He knew also that p e rmission instead to obtain DNA Atlantic and was re f e rred to Ruff- personal effects found on body #240 from the remains of Shorney’s father. man, a research associate there. w e re connected to Brighton, Eng- In early 2001, the families of the P a rr described his work in Egypt, land, a town near where Shorn e y t h ree victims formally petitioned suggested that the same appro a c h lived, and where he would have Strang for partial disinterment of the might work for the Titanic victims bought his ticket. graves of bodies #4, #240 and #281. and gave Ruffman written inform a- Ruffman in particular was seeking Strang granted their request, thus al- tion. Ruffman relayed the inform a- maternal relatives because of the ap- lowing The Titanic Ancient DNA tion to the Wallis family via p roach that Parr was pro p o s i n g , P roject (as it came to be known) to B rowning. In 2000, the family ac- which involved mitochondrial DNA proceed. cepted Parr’s offer, and asked that he (mtDNA). Unlike nuclear DNA Because of the nature of the work, p roceed. Ruffman then inform a l l y approached Robert Strang M.D., the Nova Scotia Medical Officer of Health, about the process of request- ing a disinterment. Strang explained that he needed the family to establish a strong case for why they believed they were related to body #281. He f u rther explained that the exhuma- Crafters of Fine Cremation Products tion required a legitimate purpose so Contact us for a that it would not be, in his words, “a free color brochure fishing expedition.” and price list. P a rr and Ruffman then re a l i z e d ww w. m a c ken z i e vau l t . c o m that given their intent to disinter TOLL FREE 800-726-8527 body #281, they might as well ask FAX 800-726-8563 permission for other unidentified vic- tims as well, to minimize disru p t i o n 165 Benton Drive to Fairv i e w. One such victim was P.O. Box 264 body #240 and the other was body Top Row: Classic,Companion East Longmeadow, #4, the Unknown Child. For this rea- Bottom Row: Infant,Grecian,Cube,Small Grecian MA 01028 son, Ruffman and Parr asked the The MacKenzie Family has been serving the funeral in- Wallis family to delay their disinter- dustry in the United States and Canada since ment request. Ruffman then concen- 1897,and for more than a half century MacKenzie Vault trated on finding relatives of these has continued a strong family tradition and commitment to top-notch craftsmanship, other two victims. uncompromising product quality and superior customer R u ffman and many other Ti t a n i c service. Three generations strong,MacKenzie authorities believed that body #4 is now the most trusted name for cultured marble, granite and onyx cremation urns. could be two-year-old Gösta Pålsson, the youngest son of Alma (née B e rglund) and Nils Pålsson of Gru- The overall external shape or configuration of the MacKenzie Cremation Urn is a federally-registered trademark. Any imitation or copying is strictly prohibited and will be prosecuted. van, Sweden. Alma, Gösta and three July 2004 American Cemetery ■ 37 the project team wanted publicity mediaAmerican embargo Cemetery, any news July until 2004 that station, who knew about the inter- about the operation to be delayed time. This request pertained as well v i e w, telephoned a friend who until noon on Thursday, May 17, to a taped interview that one project worked at a Halifax station, and 2001, when it would begin. For this team member had granted. However, leaked details about the project. As a reason, they requested that the news an employee of an Ontario television result, that station broadcast news of the project at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15. As a result of this action, the team faced worldwide media attention ear- lier than planned. One Halifax re s i- dent, who considered himself the g u a rdian of the Unknown Child, chained himself to the marker in order to stop the project. The matter was resolved after police officials as- s u red the man that the re m a i n s would be disturbed as little as possi- ble. The police then lifted the chains o ff the marker, and the man simply left . Despite the pre m a t u re announce- ment, the disinterments began as scheduled with bodies #240 and #281, located in adjacent lots at the lower end of the Titanic section. Fol- lowing prayers by Browning, work- Burial grounds for victims of the Titanic disaster at Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Hali- ers began to open the side-by-side fax, Nova Scotia.