Master Jirjis Mubārik (George) was born in Hardīn, Lebanon on 27 November 1904.
He was the son of Jirjis Mubārik Bū Tannūs (b. 1874) and Amīnah Iskandar Nāsīf Abī Dāghir (b. 1887). He had one sibling, a younger brother named Halīm (b. 1907).
Jirjis' father had emigrated to the USA in 1908 and settled in Clearfield, Pennsylvania where he ran a grocery store. A family friend Antūn Mūsà Yazbak, who was returning to Lebanon to marry, was asked to escort the young Jirjis, his mother Amīnah and brother Halīm across the Atlantic upon his return. Antūn's new bride was Jirjis' aunt Sīlānah, his mother's sister.
Jirjis set out from Hardīn with his mother, brother, aunt and uncle Yazbak and several others from their village bound for Beirut where they would travel to Marseille and then on to Cherbourg where, on 10 April 1912, they boarded the Titanic as third class passengers (joint ticket number 2661 which cost £15, 4s, 11d).
On the night of the sinking Jirjis, his mother and brother met up with Antūn and Sīlānah Yazbak who accompanied them on their way to the upper decks where the women and children were able to enter lifeboats. Antūn Yazbak was lost in the sinking.
Upon their rescue by the Carpathia and eventual arrival in New York, Amīnah and her sons were treated for shock and exposure. Coupled with that Jirjis and Halīm had contracted measles. Following recuperation the party made their way to Pennsylvania to be reunited with family and friends.
Jirjis became known in America as George and he and his family settled in Clearfield, Pennsylvania where his father ran a dry goods store. He later gained two further siblings, Roy (1916-1990) and Daniel (1918-1986) but his mother returned to Lebanon in the early 1920s where she died and he and his father and brothers moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
George was married on 26 February 1930 to Eva Deeba Richards (b. 1904), also a Lebanese immigrant who had arrived in the USA in 1920, but the couple had no children. They made their home in Wilkes-Barre where George worked as a used car dealer before he retired in the 1950s, he and his wife later living at 47 Bank Street in that city where they were members of St Anthony's Maronite Church.
He died on 24 October 1979 aged 74 and was buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Hanover, Pennsylvania. His widow Eva died in 1983.
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The subject of Amenia Moubarek and her two sons has been a mystery to me, since their biographies are empty. But after I read the book "Women and Children first" I have some new information to share. Amenia Moubarek was married to George Moubarek, which was also the name of her first child. He was a resident of the small town of Houtzdale, Pennsylvania, and had finally saved up enough money to bring Amenia and their two sons, 7-year-old George and 4-year-old William to America. They boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg with Amenia's sister, who just happened to be Celiney Yazbeck! After the sinking, The Moubareks lived in Houtzdale for about eight years until they moved to Wilkes-Barre in 1920. Amenia died two years later of Tuberculosis. William and George were both teenagers when their mother died. They both passed away in the late 1970's.
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