The Neals and their close call with the Titanic

Putting your ancestors in historical context is an important part of well-done research, but often so easy to overlook. It's important to always think about local and world events that they would have lived through and played a defining role in their lives. And quite frankly its also just cool. Last night while doing some research I came across a great example of this.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but happened to find the passenger list for the ship my great-grandfather, Charles Neal, sailed on when he immigrated from England to Canada in 1912. His father, John Neal, came to Canada the previous year to presumably get established and send for the rest of his family later. The time came and in 1912 his wife Alice Johnson, son Charles and daughters Regina and Florence all made the voyage together.

Neal Family in 1915 (Back to front): Regina, Charles, Alice, John and Florence.

The foursome traveled in 3rd class on a ship called the Laurentic. The Laurentic was a passenger ship used for travel between Liverpool and Quebec City. It was owned and operated by one of the most prominent companies at the time, the White Star Line. You may recognize the name as being the company that also owned the Titanic. Its interesting enough that the ship they sailed owned on was owned by such a famous company, but it gets more interesting when you think about when they sailed. The family's date of departure was May 11, 1912, exactly 26 days after the sinking of the Titanic.

Laurentic passenger list showing Neal family
Image courtesy of the National Archives, London, England

The Titanic is still hugely popular today, and it would have made all the news at the time. The family also lived in the area where the Titanic was built and set sail from, so you can only imagine how exposed to the story they would have been. To set sail on a ship owned by the same company, leaving the same port and travelling relatively the same route must have been on the forefront of their minds. I don't know if the family had bought their tickets before the sinking of the Titanic, so its hard to say what its sinking had on their travel plans. It would be great to know if they bought the tickets afterwards because they were discounted or if they had already bought them and decided to go ahead with the voyage anyways. Unfortunately I probably won't ever know the answer to those questions.

SS Laurentic

The SS Laurentic itself also had a tragic ending tied up in world events. During the First World War it was converted to an armed merchant cruiser. On January 25th, 1917 she struck several mines and sunk. 354 people on board were killed.

While they weren't on the Titanic itself, I still think it is really cool to think about how close my family was to such a major world event.