Encyclopedia Titanica

Fatīmah Muhammad Muslamānī

Fatīmah Muhammad  Muslamānī
Fatīmah Muhammad Muslamānī

Miss Fatīmah Muhammad Muslamānī (Fatima Moslimani) was born in Tibnīn, al-Janub, Lebanon on 12 January 1890.1

She was the daughter of Muhammad Muslamānī and Zaynab Katamay and she grew up in a Shi'a Muslim family in Tibnīn and had at least two siblings.
Fatīmah boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as a third-class passenger (ticket number 2649 which cost £7, 4s, 6d) having already made the voyage from Beirut to Marseille. Travelling with her were two male cousins, Mustafà Nasr 'Almā and Yūsuf Ahmad Waznah, also of Tibnīn, and she gave her destination as Michigan City, Indiana where several siblings lived.  On the Titanic she reportedly shared a cabin with an unidentified woman and her four-year-old daughter.

Fatīmah survived the sinking but both her cousins were lost.

Treated in New York for the effects of exposure, Fatīmah continued to Indiana and was married the following month on 7 May to Mohammad Mustafa Ajamy (b. 1890), seemingly also a native of Tibnīn. The couple are not believed to have had any children and they were later divorced. Mohammad was apparently later remarried and had a family, dying in the 1940s.

Fatīmah anglicised her name to Fatima Muselmanie and continued to live in Michigan City and was naturalised as a US Citizen in January 1927, giving her address as 317½ Washington Street. By the time she appeared on the 1930 census she was described as divorced and still listed under married name, continuing to live in Michigan City where she was renting out rooms to make ends meet. She was remarried in Ohio on 22 September 1936 to Charley Salem2 (b. 1896), also from Lebanon, but that marriage was also brief. 

In the 1940s Fatima paid a return visit to Lebanon; she returned to the USA and arrived there on 1 December 1947, having departed from Beirut aboard the Marine Carp.

Fatima moved to Dearborn, Michigan from Michigan City in the early 1950s; a July 1958 Canadian border crossing list states that her Dearborn address was 2147 Canabear (?) Street. 

Fatima spent the remainder of her life in Dearborn, Michigan where she was surrounded by her extended family. She died on 16 February 1971 in a nursing home and is buried in Roseland Park Cemetery, Berkeley, Michigan with her brother Hassan (1892-1968).

Notes

  1. Fatima gave different ages and dates throughout her life; the social security death index (USA) records her birth date as 12 January 1890 whilst the Michigan Death Index states she had been born on 14 June 1896. When she applied to become a naturalised US citizen in 1927 she gave her birth date as 17 June 1893. She crossed the Canadian-American border in July 1958 and then stated her birth date as 14 June 1894. 
  2. Son of C. Salem and Zohra Dekroub; little else is known about him.

References and Sources

Detroit Free Press, 1 February 2003

Newspaper Articles

Michael D. Lacopo (transcriber) The South Bend Tribune (8 May 1912) Titanic Survivor Weds
Michigan City Woman Brings Word of Drowning of South Bend Men
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Comment and discuss

  1. cindra broenner

    cindra broenner

    whatever became of Mrs. Fatima Musselmani Musselmani?
  2. cindra broenner

    cindra broenner

    /I am very much interested in finding out information on the third class passenger of Fatima Musselmani/Musselmani
  3. Phillip Gowan

    Hi Cindra, Fatima Masselmany died in Dearborn, Michigan on February 16, 1971. I hope that helps. Phillip
  4. Phillip Gowan

    Cindra, She still has relatives in the Detroit area--a number of researchers have contacted them in the past and they are non-responsive. Her nephew and his wife, the last to carry the surname, have died just within the last few years but there are cousins living in Dearborn. Phillip
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Titanic Passenger Summary

Name: Mrs Fatīmah Muhammad Muslamānī
Age: 22 years 3 months and 3 days (Female)
Nationality: Syrian Lebanese
Marital Status: Single
Last Residence: in Tibnīn, Syria
Embarked: Cherbourg on Wednesday 10th April 1912
Ticket No. 2649, £7 4s 6d
Rescued  
Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
Buried: Roseland Park Cemetery, Berkeley, California, United States

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