Mrs Mariana Assaf (née Khalil)

Mariana Assaf Khalil, 45, is thought to have been born in the Syrian village of Kfar Mechi (today Kfar Mishki or, in French, Kfarmechki) in 1867 and emigrated to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in 1907 or 08. Although she was listed as a pedlar, she was in fact a green grocer, and by all accounts a sharp businesswoman who sold produce to the carriage trade in the Canadian capital. By 1912 she had made enough money to return to Syria to visit the two sons she had left behind when she first came to Canada.

After a family visit, she was returning aboard Titanic with her cousin, Gerios Assaf, and her nephew, Solomon Khalil. She held third class ticket number 2696, £7 4s 6d.

Mariana survived the sinking, probably in Collapsible C. After her rescue she travelled on to her nephew: David Shaheen, 150 Broad Street, Ottawa, Ontario. Her first person account of the disaster appeared the in the Ottawa Citizen.

Notes
Findlay 1998 lists her as Mariana Khalil Assaf, married woman. The "List or Manifest ..." says she was single.

Documents
Ottawa Citizen, April 24, 1912, Titanic Survivor Arrived in Ottawa

References
Contract Ticket List, White Star Line 1912 (National Archives, New York; NRAN-21-SDNYCIVCAS-55[279])
Michael Findlay (1998) Revised Passenger List in Judith Geller Titanic: Women and Children First. Haynes. ISBN 1 85260 594 4
Alan Hustak (1999) Titanic: The Canadian Story. Véhicule Press. ISBN 1 55065 113 7
List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States Immigration Officer At Port Of Arrival (Date: 18th-19th June 1912, Ship: Carpathia) - National Archives, NWCTB 85 T715 Vol 4183

Acknowledgements
Peter Engberg-Klarström, Sweden
Alan Hustak, Canada
Hermann Söldner, Germany