In a conversation with Aunt Shirley, I talked about my family ancestry research and how unexpected findings can occur. In reply, she said:














AND the saying is so very true.  Although many genealogists have trees expanding nearly 10 generations or more! There are others like myself, who only keep it within three to four generations, pending upon how interesting each ancestor's story may be.

Nearly everyday I go though the hints section of my two family trees to see what has come up recently.  The green little leaf located in the upper right hand corner of Ancestry's main page always has a flashing round red dot!


 
 

Among the many hints, was the name of  Elaine Lillian Tikkanen Riegelhut.  Most of the time, I am pretty familiar with names and how they fit into my two family trees. Yet I hadn't a clue as to who this lady was?!  That was until I clicked upon her name and realized this was Uncle Jim Blomquist's mother! Then I remembered a short story Aunt Shirley told me about Uncle Jim's family connection  to the Titanic!!













 
 







In 2022, I did a posting on Facebook regarding the Titanic ship family connection. This prompted a reply from Aunt Nora who wrote: "I saw a list of survivors on the Titanic… one Norah Murphy (my maiden name), was running away from her husband to join her lover…! Their relationship must have been meant to be given she was one of the few to live."

This got me started on a Titanic passenger search quest for both family members who were connected to the infamous ship.

Having seen the James Cameron Titanic film twice (which in my opinion is the best version of Titanic story), I too must admit I am quite interested in all that has been discovered or learned about the ship and it's tragedy.

I love to see the National Geographic videos of the ship broken in two parts on the ocean floor as well as looking online at the seven Titanic Museums located throughout the US that I really want to visit!

As you can well imagine, there are literally hundreds of websites dedicated to the Titanic! But my search was specifically for the full crew and passenger lists.  I wanted to know more on the ancestors of both Uncle Jim and Aunt Nora's Who were on OR Almost were on that infamous ship! The website ENCYCLOPEDIA TITANICA provided me the information I was looking for.
 
NORAH MURPHY  (From Aunt Nora's father's family)

There was indeed a passenger named Norah (the Irish spelling of Nora) Murphy age 34. She boarded the ship at Queenstown Ireland to stay in 3rd class. Fortunately Irish luck was on her side, and as the ship began to sink, she was able to get on lifeboat # 16. 

ENCYCLOPEDIA TITANICA described the story of Norah Murphy as shown below.

Miss Norah Murphy was born in Mountjoy, Dublin, Ireland on 11 May 1880
 
She was the daughter of Patrick Murphy (b. circa 1834), a draper, and Catherine Theresa O'Grady (b. 1841) and they had married in St Andrew's Church in Dublin on 3 February 1864. The family were Roman Catholic and from Dublin's North side.

Norah's known siblings were: Mary Julia (b. 1865), Peter Anthony (b. 1867), Mary Catherine (b. 1869), Frances Margaret (b. 1873), Patrick John (b. 1875) and Lillian Angela (b. 1876).
 
Whilst it is uncertain whether Norah had ever been married she mothered a daughter around 1906 who was ultimately raised by a sister. By the time of the 1911 census Norah was listed as living in Sallins, Co Kildare and was described as an unmarried nursemaid to the family of merchant John Park Healy and his family. Her widowed father Patrick and unmarried sister Frances were still residing in Dublin at 67 Park Avenue, Pembroke.
 
Norah boarded the Titanic at Queenstown on 11 April 1910 as a third class passenger-a joint ticket number 36568 which cost £15, (20 dollars in American money). She was traveling with Michael McEvoy, a native of Queen's County (modern-day Co Laois) over ten years her junior and it has been suggested that they were lovers.
 
Her intended destination was 231 East 50th Street in New York. Norah was rescued alongside a number of other Irish passengers with whom she was likely acquainted, but the boat number is not certain.
 
Following her arrival in New York she changed plans from her intended destination and instead decided to travel to the Irish Immigrant Girls' Home at 7 State Street. It is said that she had befriended first class survivor Karl Behr, seemingly whilst aboard Carpathia. He gave her a start and she took up employment as a domestic servant with Karl's father Herman Behr in Manhattan.

Norah was shown on the 1920 census still living in Manhattan and under the employ of Herman Behr but following that she drops off the radar and what became of her is unknown, even to her immediate family. Back in Ireland her father Patrick died on 13 July 1914.

Below is a photo of Lifeboat 16 when it was picked up by the RMS Carpathia.
There was no caption below as to who was who in this particular photo. Norah Murphy may be in it or she may have already walked up the rope ladder to the ship.













From the site GG Archives here some are very interesting facts about Lifeboat 16









































Upon completion of that search, I then wondered which branch of Uncle Jim's family had an ancestor that was on the Titanic.  I first put in the last name of Blomquist and came up empty.

Going back to the ancestor Rigelhut, I looked into her ancestral background and  Sure and begorrah there it was! Her maiden name was Tikkanen or sometimes spelled Tiikkainen and the ancestor came from her father's side of the family several generations before.

This was the Titanic story Aunt Shirley shared with me:

"There were two siblings a brother and sister (From Finland) who were set to to travel on the Titanic. At the ship's port, the brother's papers and passport were found to be in order and so he boarded the ship.

However, his sisters papers were not found to be in order (or possibly an incorrect or missing passport).  Thus, she did not step aboard the Titanic and had to make other travel arrangements. 

The brother's name was Johannes Juho Tikkanen and from ENCYCLOPEDIA TITANICA came this story.

JUHO TIKKANEN  (From Uncle Jim's mother's family)

Johannes 'Juho' Tikkanen was born 24 June 1879 in Pielavesi, Kuopio, Finland, the son of Herman, a farmer b. 18 December 1832, and Helena (née Gregorsdotter, b. 16 December 1838) Tikkanen; they had married 28 June 1869 in Pielavesi.

He had two brothers and three sisters; Karolina, b. 25 December 1870, Lovisa, b. 9 November 1872, Henrik, b. 12 November 1874, Anna, b. 8 January 1877, and Jafet, b. 22 March 1882.

He traveled from Hankä to Hull before joining the Titanic at Southampton. He was bound for New York. The fare from Hankä to New York was 269 Fmk ($51 in American Dollars ). Juho Tikkanen died at age of 33 in the sinking, his body, if recovered, was never identified. £50 in compensation was later paid to his relatives.

The Titanic Casualties List describes his occupation as laborer.  But then a sudden surprise finding!!!! It appears that Juho was actually part of the Titanic crew!  Ancestry.com has scans of the record books known as Titanic Crew AND Foreign Going or Home Trade Ship!! Below are images from it showing Juho's name.  I have included a close ups  of his name below each full page.