Mrs Kātrīn Yūsuf (Katherine Joseph) was born as Kātrīn Rizq in Sar'al, Lebanon around 1886.1 She was the daughter of Thomas Rizq and his wife Sada.
When Katherine first came to the USA is not clear but at some point in the early 1900s she was living in Detroit, Michigan. At age 18, on 5 September 1904, Kātrīn was married in that city to Peter Joseph (Buṭrus Yūsuf) (b. circa 1883), a labourer also from Lebanon. Their son Michael was born in Detroit on 11 May 1907, followed by their daughter Mary on 21 September 1909.
Katherine and her two children returned to Lebanon around 1910 to visit relatives and perhaps because of monetary woes back in America. For the return to Detroit the family boarded Titanic at Cherbourg as third class passengers (ticket number 2668 which cost £22, 7s, 2d).
Asleep at the time of the collision, Katherine was stirred awake by the impact. Further commotion outside the cabin prompted Mrs Joseph to get up and get dressed before dressing her children. Holding baby Mary in her arms, she instructed her young son to hold fast to her skirt as they started for the upper decks amid a growing crowd of confused steerage passengers. Accounts vary as to what happened next; one wildly states that the family made their way to the upper decks and climbed into a lifeboat together and, following the foundering of Titanic, Mrs Joseph accidentally dropped her young son into the water. Fearing him drowned, he was reportedly picked up by a passing lifeboat. Another account states that Michael became separated from his mother and sister in the crowds on the way to the boat deck, they leaving the ship without him. Michael, bewildered and alone was guided to another lifeboat by an unknown man and reunited with his mother and sister aboard Carpathia, he having arrived aboard ahead of them both.
Upon arrival in New York Mrs Joseph's two children contracted measles whilst aboard Carpathia and were hospitalised in St Vincent's before they made the journey to Detroit.
Over the next few years life in Detroit was difficult for the family; they lived in an apartment above a grocers at 134 Congress Street East. On Sunday 22 March 1914 Katherine, her husband and young son went to church, leaving 4-year-old daughter Mary alone, asleep in her crib.
Michael Tonie, the grocer who lived directly below the Joseph family, heard the screams of a child and rushed up to the apartment. Kicking open her bedroom door he was met with flames and spotted young Mary standing helpless in the middle of the room, her clothes alight. Mr Tonie, without regard for his own safety, beat the flames out with his bare hands and swept the child up and rushed her down to his grocery store where he telephoned for an ambulance; Mary was taken to St Mary's Hospital. Her parents, upon returning from church, were met by a policemen who informed them of events and they hastened to the hospital. Mary died from her injuries later that day with her parents by her side. She was buried in Mt Olivet Cemetery in Detroit.
It was perhaps some consolation to them that in March 1915 the family welcomed another addition when daughter Sadie was born.
Katherine did not live long to see her young daughter grow and she died on 19 June 1915. She is buried in Mount Olivet cemetery, Detroit, Michigan (section 44, Tier 7, Space 589).
Her baby daughter Sadie did not survive long after; suffering from bronchopneumonia and later admitted to The Children's Hospital, she died 5 November 1915.
Katherine's widower survived just over a decade and a heart condition hastened his demise on 23 March 1926.
The only surviving member of the family, Michael, was taken in by relatives and lived a long life before his death in 1991.
Comment and discuss
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I have questions regarding information on the Joseph Family, 3rd class mother, brother, and sister traveling under the surname "Peter" aboard the Titanic. I only have what information is given so far on this website under their passenger bios (birth & death date for Mary/Anna and Michael, death date for Catherine, burial place for Catherine and Mary/Anna). Just taking a stab in the dark to see if anyone else has any more information than listed as I progress in research on my end. I've searched what resources I can online: no results on any possible aliases in the U.S. Census records, no online Catholic church records (I'm guessing they were Catholic because Catherine and Mary/Anna were buried in Mt. Olivet) for Wayne County, Michigan, etc. I think my next step is going to the State of Michigan Archives or Department of Health and getting vital records there. Kinda cost prohibitive for a college student. Any ideas on resources I might try, this side of spending my break...
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Hello Robert, There are two and a half pages on the family in Judith Geller's" Titanic Women and Children First. Michael went to a Catholic grammar school.
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Robert - Hi and welcome. For some technical reason I cannot access the biographies of the three people you are interested in so some of the below may be duplicated anyway here are my entries for them: JOSEPH, MRS. CATHERINE. Saved in Lifeboat D. Aged 24 years. Returning to husband in America after visiting relatives in Syria. Died in 1915 and is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan. in Section 44, tier 10, lot 529. JOSEPH, MICHAEL PETER JOSEPH. Saved in Lifeboat D. Syrian. Son of above. Aged four years. Died 18th May 1991, Warren, Michigan. Joseph, Miss Catherine. Daughter of above. Aged 1 year. (From the Emergency and Relief Booklet by the American Red Cross, 1913). No. 225. (Syrian). Mother 24 years of age, and two young children returning from a visit to relatives, to join father and husband in Michigan, suffered severely from shock and exposure, and lost baggage valued at $100 and $40 in cash. received Hospital care, clothing and $100 from other...
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Thank you Lester and Brian for your prompt responses into my inquiry, particularly Brian for filling in some of the holes. In progressing in some of the research, I have found a discrepancy in the spelling of the name of the Lebanese or Syrian hometown of the family. This website gives the home name as "Seraal" and "Scraal." The Carpathia passenger manifest gives the home name of Catherine's mother, Sada Thomas (if that name is meant to connect with hers), as first "Saral" and then "Sarol." Phonetically, Saral, Sarol, and Seraal sound the same, so I am inclined to omit the fourth spelling. I've done some minor searching geographically for any city like this. No luck yet. Just a stab in the dark--does anyone have any clarification on location or correct spelling? I have yet to check the university map collection. Also, does anyone know anything more about the little boy born to Catherine and Peter in 1913? It died soon after birth: did they name it? Is anyone in...
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Okay so, on Titanic Mary is 1, her brother Michael is 4. That was 1912. Mary is burned to death at her home while Michael and the parents were on the way to church. It says Mary is 4, Michael is 8. That was 1914. See the issue? Someone had posted the newspaper article about it a while back, and i just thought that the ages are wrong either then or on Titanic. Also the children were born in Assyria, which, surprise, (or maybe just to me) is now modern-day Iraq.
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I realize the thread above is years old but let me correct what has been said. The family is Syrian NOT Assyrian The passenger's name transliterated from the Arabic is Katrinah and she is from Sar'al which was in Syria in 1912. Again, please understand that there never existed the country of 'Lebanon' until the Greater Powers of colonization and mandates divided Greater Syria up into the countries we have today. They were not Assyrian. The family was Syrian from Syria as were all the other towns that are in today's modern day 'Lebanon' were all in Syria. They were not 'Lebanese' immigrants - rather Syrian. There existed no Lebanon, ergo no 'Lebanese' at the time. When I interviewed the family members, they told me that the young girl Nabīhwas born in Syria. I have an entry for the family in my book explaining more but since I do not have access at the moment to my book and notes - I offer what I can at the moment.
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was born in Syria. I have an entry for the family in my book explaining more but since I do not have access at the moment to my book and notes - I offer what I can at the...
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That is untrue. While in 1912 there might bot have been no properly recognized border between Syria and Lebanon, there has existed a very strong Lebanese culture for centuries. It would be out of place to go into Lebanese history in these forums but Youssef Bey Karam, a Lebanese patriot who died in 1889, would have taken a very strong exception with the other post. I cannot say how the Lebanese passengers on board the Titanic felt about their nationality but the few Lebanese people I have met in the UK very strongly object to being...
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