Miles, your question is an interesting one that raises important and sensitive issues. Because Mr Smith and a mutual friend - whose name all of us on ET know - would never reply, I will attempt to do so. Yet, it is only with great reluctance, and the intention of respecting every confidence we exchanged and every promise I made. That being so, what can be left for me to say? Merely this: Mr Smith never made - nor would it be in character for him to ever make - any 'claim for himself'. Rather - with both innocence and intelligence - he continued to believed what had been told him, with assurances and material proofs, from earliest childhood. An altogether fine person; upright, unassuming and without 'side'. I personally regret - though I fully understand and respect it - that Mr Smith remains intent upon never again - even privately - discussing his being or his not being the 'great-nephew of Captain Smith of the Titanic'. Not even if he is.