Titanic's unknown child is finally identified

msnbc.com ^ | 4/25/2011 | Wynne Parry

[stylecouncilor]

Five days after the passenger ship the Titanic sank, the crew of the rescue ship Mackay-Bennett pulled the body of a fair-haired, roughly 2-year-old boy out of the Atlantic Ocean on April 21, 1912. Along with many other victims, his body went to a cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the crew of the Mackay-Bennett had a headstone dedicated to the "unknown child" placed over his grave.

When it sank, the Titanic took the lives of 1,497 of the 2,209 people aboard with it. Some bodies were recovered, but names remained elusive, while others are still missing. But researchers believe that they have finally resolved the identity of the unknown child —concluding that he was 19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin from England.

Though the unknown child was incorrectly identified twice before, researchers believe they have now conclusively determined the child was Goodwin. After his recovery, he was initially believed to be a 2-year-old Swedish boy, Gösta Leonard Pålsson, who was seen being washed overboard as the ship sank. This boy's mother, Alma Pålsson, was recovered with the tickets for all four of her children in her pocket, and buried in a grave behind the unknown child.

The effort to verify the child's identity using genetics began a little over a decade ago, when Ryan Parr, an adjunct professor at Lakehead University in Ontario who has worked with DNA extracted from ancient human remains, watched some videos about the Titanic.

"I thought 'Wow, I wonder if anyone is interested or still cares about the unidentified victims of the Titanic,'" Parr said.

[stylecouncilor]

[svcw]

Interesting

[brytlea]

Very interesting, and even after so much time, still sad to think of so many people, families wiped out.

[GladesGuru]

“Very interesting, and even after so much time, still sad to think of so many people, families wiped out.”

Sad, indeed.

But nothing compared to the number of Americans Islam has already killed - and that is nothing compared to what they are going to try to do to us.

[brytlea]

I can be sad about a lot of things. And apprehensive about even more!

[KoRn]

Very sad.....

[passionfruit]

I’m glad they identified him. A tragic end to a very short life.

[Charlespg]

fascinating and sad

Reminded me of this as well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_circus_fire#Little_Miss_1565

[stylecouncilor]

Wow! What a tragic story. Thanks for posting it.

[workerbee]

Fascinating, thank you. Say what you will about James Cameron's Titanic, but watching that version was the first time I really felt a human connection to that tragic event. It left me unsettled for several days after seeing the movie.

[rintense]

Agreed.

[stylecouncilor]

I like that movie too. :)

[Bigg Red]

It left me unsettled for several days after seeing the movie.

&&&
Me, too. Because it was junk pretending to be art.

[kabumpo]

Agree with you. A lot.

[SES1066]

Watson, Crick, Franklin and all of the other DNA researchers had only the barest idea of the enormity of their work in the early 1950s. Now we trace the lines of evolution, free innocents from jail, empty the Vietnam Tomb in Arlington and identify a Titanic victim. The ripples are still spreading and it is hard to see how mighty the wave has become.

[workerbee]

I agree with you insofar as the main storyline is concerned. I'm talking more about the scenes of the sinking itself: the doors closing on the engine room as the workers try to get out, the flooding passageways, the mother tucking her children into bed as their cabin floods, the people falling from the decks onto the propellers as the ship capsizes, the bodies floating in the freezing water afterwards. All that was done very well, IMO, and brought home the fact that Titanic was something that "real people" experienced, and not all that long ago.

[LadyDoc]

alas, such sinkings are not uncommon even today. Last year, several hundred folks here in the Philippines died when a ferry tipped over suddenly: some on deck managed to float long enough to be saved, but most died.

how does that hymn go “for those in peril on the sea”? Still holds today.

[Bigg Red]

Yes, the special effects were impressive. (Of course, the scenes of the so-called heroine, in a long dress, waist deep in water below decks, running as if it were up to her ankles were laughable.)

But the story line was lame, and the main characters were not at all admirable — she’s a strumpet, and he’s a bum who gets onto the ship by lying.

Also, the film painted the junior officers of the ship in a very poor light even though many acted quite nobly.

I think the film made decades ago was much better in terms of showing human behavior at its best and at its worst in such a disaster, even though, those characters were fictional, as well.

No, it was not really that long ago, as it will be 100 years next year. BTW, 1912 was the year my dear, departed mother was born.

[SunkenCiv]

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[PghBaldy]

I hadn’t thought of her in a while. Thank you. There is something especially tragic about unknown and unclaimed dead.