Scott, I meant that it caused my family distress when the claim was first made in 1940. It is still emotional for the elder members of my family today, however because they remember the stress it caused.
Debrina I have read your website and seen your posts here and on another forum. I am sorry but Percy and Lillian were NOT in line for any money from Hudson's estate. I have his will and all the probate letters. It is very very detailed. Trevor did NOT die just before he was due his inheritance because he had only just turned 18 and would not have got any money until after he had turned 21.
Hudson was very clear and precise with what should happen with his money and with his properties and this was all carried out to the letter.
George made a lot more money that Hudson had and Lillian received this when he died. Percy had a multi million vacation complex. They did not care about any money of Hudson's. Please stop trying to make them out as
criminals. Lillian raised
Trevor Allison like her own son and there are many pictures of the little lad being shown as a happy, well loved individual. He was exceptionally close to his cousin Eric who was like a brother to him.
Several years ago I met up with the son of Lillian's sister who was there the day Trevor died. Trevor was with Arville and
Sarah Daniels in Massachusetts when he became ill. Arville had tried to get him to see a doctor but being a young man, he refused thinking he could beat it. He then travelled by train to Portland, Maine where the Allisons were on vacation. He played on the beach, walking on his hands and showing off as boys of that age do. By the evening Trevor deteriorated and became violently ill. George and Lillian summoned a doctor but Trevor refused to be examined. He died hours later in his bed and the whole family was devastated. Phillip, Lillie's nephew still remembered her distressed wailing waking him up in the night.
If your only desire was to reunite your grandmother with her true family why make it so public? Why not hire a genealogist to trace the living family and then you could have got an attorney to contact them on your behalf to enquire about DNA testing. Why do it now, 100 years after the sinking when interest in the Titanic is at its peak? Why not do it earlier? This could have been done years ago and in private.
When and how did you come across this supposed suitcase? Why wait until the 100th anniversary to open it unless you are going for sensational dramatic story telling? Why not open it when you first found it?
On your website you show pictures of these binders but no detail can be seen at all. They could be of absolutely anything so I am not sure what they are supposed to prove.
If this is not about making cash then why are you planning a book about it? Why not just publish your story online where people can read it for free? If its not about the money then why post this on your site:
"We are planning both a (hard cover) book and also considering Ebook options, which will document all and we are also interested in reviewing any film or documentary interest that may exist."
If its not about the money, why have you - before DNA testing has even been completed, prepared a 1.5 hour lecture which you will charge for?
When the DNA testing has been completed will you publish the results if they show you are not related to Hudson and Bessie? What will you do if they show you are not related?
Exactly who is "James Hyde" There is no one by that name on the passenger or crew lists so what was his actual name? It is implausible to suggest that this is Thomas Andrews. If he had survived there is no way everyone involved would have kept quiet. Why would Andrews himself live a life in hiding raising someone else's little girl when he had a wife he was insanely in love with at home and a beautiful little 2 year old daughter of his own?
What name did your grandmother grow up with? Through research I know that she was known as Irene Evangeline when she met Beecher Ferguson but what was her maiden surname? I know she was a nurse and that by 1935 she was with Lawrence C Kramer. What did Mr. Kramer think of his wife's supposed father's revealation?
If your grandmother grew up in England lets say she finishes school at 15-16 years which was the norm back then in England. Between 1924/25 when she finished school and 1929 when her first child with Ferguson was born she must have travelled to America. She would have needed a passport how did she get this with no proof of who she was?
Your grandmother died in March 1992. whoever registered her death gave her name as Helen Loraine Kramer her birth date as 5 June 1909 and her father's surname as Allison. How was this allowed to happen?
Before the revealation in 1940 by "hyde" to your grandmother, what did she believe her birth date to be? Where did she believe to have been born?
Helen was almost three years old when Titanic sank. Why would she just accept being with this man? Why wouldn’t she cry and wail? She would have wondered where her parents and brother were.
How did she get from the lifeboat, to the
Carpathia, to New York and then back to England without
Alice Cleaver,
Sarah Daniels, Mildred Brown, Arthur Peuchen, Madeleine Astor, Clara Hays, Orian Davidson, Mr. and Mrs. Spedden, plus John Wesley Allison, George Allison, Percy Allison, Arville Daniels, Sarah Daniels, Myrtle Daniels seeing her?? These were all close personal friends bar the speddens but they knew Loraine well because she played with their son on Titanic several times.
I have many more questions but will stop here. You can answer them all privately either here via private message or through my email
[email protected] just remove the NOSPAM from the address.