Unofficial Lusitania Survivors

[Darren Honeycutt]

I am amazed at this story of the woman who claims to be a Lusitania survivor. Can her story not be proven and what is her explaination for not being on the passenger lists? Was her family's story not published in her local hometown newspaper in 1915?

 

[Geoff Whitfield]

Hi Darren,

I suppose that the original list wouldn't include those passengers transferred from the "Cameronia" at the last minute, nor would it list the few who purchased tickets on board.Like Peter, I've searched through the Cunard Archives many times and the only possibilities lie in the letters from relatives who wrote to Cunard to say that their friend/relation had "Told" them that they intended taking the 1st May crossing on the Lusitania. I know of only one instance where anyone bothered to follow up their letter to Cunard by writing to tell them that their "Missing" relative had, indeed, turned up.
What does perplex me however, is that darned third class entertainments programme which lists a number of people who do not appear on the official Cunard listings. These people must have sailed as the programmes would be printed the previous day - whilst the vessel was at sea.
I recall that Annie Frankum was listed as a "Star" performer, but can't remember who else.

It may be well worthwhile for me to move house in the hope I can find these missing papers in the process!!

Regards

Geoff

 

[Darren Honeycutt]

Hi Geoff, hope you are doing well. Thanks for the explaination. I think most of all I was surprised that someone could possibly come forth at this late date and say they were a passenger aboard the Lusitania. Its great that Rosalie is in good health. Even if she isn't or it hasn't been proven that she was a passenger, she is keeping the story of the Lusitania alive for future generations.

 

[Darren Honeycutt]

I was doing a google search on Mrs. Bonsignore and it seems that someone needs to tell her that she has some unclaimed money coming to her if its the same Rosalie Bonsignore from New York state.

 

[Bruce Tompkins]

Hello to all, I met Barbara Anderson McDermott in 2000 and again in 2001 at TIS conventions as their guest-of-honor. She was relatively sharp then, quite charming, and would gladly sign
anything. I understand that now she is blind or nearly so and quite feeble and therefore cannot sign anything. Does anyone out there know how she is doing, and how many known survivors of the Lusitania sinking are still alive? I understand that unlike Titanic survivors, the Lusitania survivors were not a tight-knit group and were reluctant to talk about their experiences. I feel particularly sad as I accidentally threw away her file (which contained letters that she had written to me) when my wife and I moved from the east coast to the west coast of the USA. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Bruce [email protected]

 

[Bruce Tompkins]

What is the story of Rosalie Altamore Bonsignore?
Has she apparently deluded herself into assuming that she was a survivor of the Lusitania sinking
(there were also so-called Titanic survivors like that)? Has anyone ever gotten hard evidence or has anyone ever talked to her about this? I could not find her name on any official record of passengers or crew of the ill-fated voyage? Thanks

 

[Bruce Tompkins]

I hear stories from time to time that Winston Churchill, a rising star in the British Admiralty,
knew that the Lusitania was being hunted by U-20 and yet let the ship be sunk thinking that it would draw the US into the "Great War". Of course, the US maintained its neutrality and it was the sinking of the Arabic that really turned the tide in favor of US entry into the war.

 

[Bruce Tompkins]

Does anyone out there have letters from Barbara Anderson McDermott that could be copied and sent to me? I mistakenly threw out a file that contained several letters which she had written to me when my wife and I moved in 2006.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>I hear stories from time to time that Winston Churchill, a rising star in the British Admiralty,
knew that the Lusitania was being hunted by U-20 <<

Too bad the U-20 didn't know they were hunting the Lusitania. It's details like that which are the reason why otherwise convincing grand conspiracy theories fall apart under close examination. Such theories presume the co-operation of at least one or more parties who have no reason to go along with the game, and who aren't even a party to the plot!

 

[Peter Kelly]

Hi Bruce,

Asked the same question about Rosalie myself and believe that she was not on board the final voyage of the Lusitania. All of the children that survived were well documented and she does not fit the profile of any. At no stage have I read anything which would have me believe she was a passenger, including newspaper interviews she has given. Rosalie and/or her family may have arrived in America on the Lusitania, but I am convinced they were not on the final voyage. Why she claims to be a survivor is a question I would like to ask her myself, if the opportunity ever arises.

Peter

 

[Hildur Panula-Heinonen]

Would it not be simple to fake the story of surviving a tragic shipwreck? I mean look at all the things people fake in today's world.
If the lady got her names dates and places right, she could have well have been on any shipwreck she pleased.
Don't get me wrong, i don't wish to sound rude,
but i tend to go with listed information on passengers or track records of them, not just word of mouth.
Does this women have any physical proof she was on the ship,
like has any past family members declared her story as true? And maybe there is a Ellis Island record of her entering USA?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>Would it not be simple to fake the story of surviving a tragic shipwreck?<<

Yes. People did it all the time, and even today, there are a number of people who advance claims on behalf of reletives.

However, making the claim is one thing, substantiating it is quite another. While the records keeping back in that day and age was far from perfect, it tended to be pretty meticulous so if somebody was aboard a given vessel, it's not that hard to check passenger manifests, immigration records, and crew sign on lists.

That much said, the point where "Unofficial Survivors" comes into play is when you have the possibility of stowaways and those who travel under assumed names. Such people don't like to call a lot of attention to their presence, especially if they're there illegally. Most of the time, the ship makes port and they vanish into the woodwork with few people caring except maybe the police.

It's when the ship comes to grief that this can bite.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Working against successfully passing yourself off as a Lusitania survivor, at this point, is that there are very few survivors you COULD be. Of those between infant and age 10 (who could CONCEIVABLY still be alive) all but one or two are proveably dead at this point. SO, you'd have to pick a survivor that NONE of the researchers out there have found (and how would you know who that was?) and learn enough about that person to be convincing.

Twenty-five years ago, your best bet to pass yourself off as a survivor would have been to select one of the third class passengers who was returning home to Persia (Iran)or Russia (U.S.S.R.), neither location being conducive to follow-up research. However, none of those passengers could possibly still be living, so that fraudulent boat has sailed, so to speak.

But, there are a number of fraudulent historical figures out there. Reporters doing "Anniversary" stories, aka History Lite Puff Pieces, have neither the time nor inclination to do the kind of digging needed to prove or disprove a person's claims~ the number of "children' who now claim to have seen the assasination attempt of Roosevelt (at which Mayor Cermak of Chicago WAS killed)is now so large that it suggests Roosevelt was fired upon during a visit to Children's Village, but in the end a quote from an old person who PROBABLY was not there does not really hurt anything.

Where it DOES hurt is on the occasions when the fraud goes deeper than a puff piece printed on an anniversary. Taking money from novice researchers, lazy documentarians, and young history buffs whoa re not yet jaded is fraud, no matter how one looks at it, and no matter how minor the sums involved are.

 

[Joyce Baxter]

>Which brings us back to my original question: has anyone bothered to dig a little deeper, beyond the 'official' paper to try and sort out these stories? If you read the article in the link I included above, Rosalie claims to have been is close correspondance with the 'German fellow' who saved her during the sinking. Do we know who he is, and if he was on board? Has anyone bothered to ask him if he can prove she was on the ship?<

Well I must say Rosalie is my great Grandmother and i have never heard of her being in "close correspondance" with the man who saved her life nor have i heard of her having any memories of what happend. My Grandmother her daughter has heard it not only from her but from her father and quite a few family members in Italy.

>The twisted thing is she's even got her offspring believing it, and is allowing them to risk embarrassing themselves by spreading it. My guess would be that some of the details of this woman's birth and background aren't so nice, causing explanations for severed family ties to be searched for, either in her own mind or by those bringing her up.<

Now in response to this post even if by some highly unlikely chance she isn't telling the truth i will never be emarressed by what my Great grandmother has told me and I doubt any of my other family members will. Also she had a great up bringing her Grandmother raised her for most of her life in Italy her father would send money cloths and gifts for her she came back to the U.S. when she was either 12 or 13 to live with her father and later had a beautiful family.

 

[Mike Poirier]

Hi Joyce,

Myself, Jim Kalafus, Peter Kelly, Cliff Barry, Geoff Whitfield and others have been researching the Lusitania for many years. We have all done research on both sides of the ocean. With all the information your great-grandmother has given, there is absolutely no way she was on the Lusitania. She and her mother are not on the passenger list; they are not mentioned in any local or national newspaper; they are not mentioned in any Cunard correspondence; they are not mentioned in monetary claims;

If she did survive a shipwreck, it was not Lusitania. Keep in mind, there were so many passenger ships sunk betweent 1915-1918. She could have been so young that she would not know. And if her mother really did die shortly thereafter, the family legend could have been that it was the Lusitania. There was a woman who believed she was a survivor of the Titanic, but she was an infant at the time. Well, it turns out she most likely survived the Volturno, a year later.

If I were you, before she tells the story again to the public, I would research where she stayed in England shortly after the sinking and where she lived in England to see if there is any newspaper coverage of her. I would also look within your family to see exactly when she started telling the story. Did she tell her children when she was growing up? Is this a late in life thing? Get the death certificate for her mother and and perhaps the obituary. That would be another clue.

Good luck in your search.