April 14, 2016
Today is the 104th anniversary of the RMS Titanic striking an iceberg that caused the massive passenger liner to sink. At 11:40 p.m. on 14 April 1912 – on just the fourth day of its crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean, its maiden voyage – the Titanic hit the iceberg that caused 5 of the ship’s 16 “watertight” compartments to buckle and fill with seawater. At 2:20 a.m. on 15 April 1912 the “unsinkable” ship did just that. The maritime disaster resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 passengers and crewmembers.
The sinking of the Titanic – and the large loss of life, ranging from some of the wealthiest persons at that time to some of the poorest – shocked the world. People were angered and frightened that the world’s largest ship, with the most modern safety features, had failed. As the world’s newspapers slowly filled with stories from the survivors of incredible hardship and some remarkable feats of courage and sacrifice, the public’s fascination with the Titanic story intensified and has remained strong to this day.
The Titanic saga has particularly appealed to genealogists, as family historians map out family lines and ancestors lost that day, and trace those that miraculously survived. This blog post highlights some of the past articles we’ve published on the GenealogyBank Blog about researching the Titanic disaster and its aftermath. Just click on the title of any article that interests you to read the full blog post, mostly based on newspaper articles found in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives.
Titanic Blog Articles:
