It was a disaster like no other at that time. The world’s biggest (and self-proclaimed ‘unsinkable’) ship set off from Southampton on 10 April 1912, bound for New York. It was her maiden voyage, and the crowd seeing it off was huge. Little did they know that just 5 days later all onboard would be fighting for their life, with the vast majority not making it.

2.20am, 15 April 1912, just a mere 2 hours and 40 minutes after hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, the unthinkable happened to the unsinkable. The Titanic sank.

Route of Titanic’s first/last maiden voyage, 10-15 April 1912
(Creative Commons licence, Prioryman)

total capacity: 3547 passengers and crew
total onboard: 2206 passengers and crew
total survived: 703 passengers and crew 

That was 105 years ago, and it still has an impact.

The movie below is from British Pathè’s collection, and is just one of the 85,000 old movies they have made freely available. Showing actual footage of the ship, the rescue ships, together with interviews of some survivors, it is chilling.

There’s no doubt that the Titanic has become the stuff of legend.

I remember asking my grandma about it though she wasn’t born at the time, but her older sisters were, and they remembered it, being aged 11 and 12.

So I decided to see what the local South Australian newspapers wrote about it.

The following was the first report of it in South Australia’s “The Advertiser”, was was dated 18 April 1912. Not too bad considering that communication back then wasn’t as instant as we have today. It didn’t make front page like it did in the US or England, but it did make a big article on page 9. The article blow is just a small portion of it.

The Wreck of the Titanic, (18 April 1912, The Advertiser , p. 9.) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5336985

And as you would expect, every Australian newspaper ran the story, together with all the reports afterwards. For newspapers just in South Australia, and just in April 1912, Trove has 1000 articles. I’ll admit it, I didn’t read them all.

There’s no doubt this tragedy rocked the world, but something that I was reminded of reading a current news article relating to the 105th Anniversary of this event, was of those who had to go out afterwards and “collect the dead”. We tend to think of the rescuers, but forget about those who went in afterwards.

“As rescue ships approached the ghostly sea where the Titanic plunged into the ocean in the dead of the cold night on April 15, 1912, white specks began to appear in the distance. To onlookers aboard, they looked like “clustering and moving along the waves like a flock of seagulls”. Hundreds of them. All grouped together. The white specks were frozen bodies of the dead, wrapped in the ill-fated steamer’s life belts. For days, great quantities of these bodies, along with doors, pillows, chairs, tables, and scattered remains, floated along the North Atlantic.”

You can read the “Rescue Crews Reveal the Grisly Aftermath of the Titanic Tragedy” here.

So on this day, 105 years on, we remember not only those who lost their life and their families, as well as who were fortunate enough to survive this tragedy, but also those who had the horrific task of “cleaning up” afterwards. Every one of them would have had their life changed from the events that took place on 12 April 1912.

More info on the Titanic:
For more Titanic related old movies from British Pathè click here
100 Facts about the Titanic
Timeline of the Titanic
Wikipedia’s entry for RMS Titanic

Please Note: there are slight discrepancies in the number who died, and the number who survived. One articles says 703 survived, another says 706, another says 705. Another article says 1503 died, another 1517. I’m no professional historian, so I can’t say for sure which is the real figure, but it would be a matter of looking further at how each have calculated their numbers.

My regular readers will know that my 4x great grandma Charlotte Phillips and her husband Samuel Trewartha are two of my fav ancestors, and I’ve written about them from time to time.

Born in the 1820s, they grew up in Cornwall, England and in the English 1861 census Samuel Trewartha’s occupation was given as Copper Miner, while Charlotte’s was Confectioner. This is followed by an entry in the 1866 Directory for Redruth (England) where Samuel is listed as a Sugar Boiler, so obviously they were making candy to supplement his income from mining.

It was in 1867 that they made the lifechanging decision to move from England to the United States, ending up in Rockaway and Dover, Morris County, New Jersey, and they opened a candy store there … which from what I can tell was a wonderful store, with an incredible reputation and ran for at least several generations, with her son John and his wife Minnie running it in her later year, and I believe some granddaughters did after that, with Black Rock Candy being their signature treat.

While I know a fair bit about Charlotte’s life from records, one thing I didn’t have is any photos of Samuel,  Charlotte, the candy store. That is, at least until cousin bait worked, and some distant relatives saw my previous posts, and have sent me some photos, and have kindly allowed me to share them with you here.

So I must say a HUGE, HUGE thank you to Glenn Rush who sent me the photos below, and has allowed me to share them with you. And also to Eric Bullfinch who has sent me a map showing the exact location of the store in Sussex Street, Dover.

Mrs S. Trewartha’s Confectionery Store in Dover, New Jersey, late c.1800s
as for who is in the photo – possibly Zella (far left) and Minnie (far right) and possibly Charlotte (second from left)

a 1970s candy box of Trewartha’s Black Rock Candy, complete with biography of Samuel Trewartha “Candy Sam”

Charlotte and Samuel’s son, John Trewartha’s memorial card

obituary for Minnie Trewartha with photos of her and John

obituary for Minnie Trewartha

Zella May Trewartha, at age 20

1899 Robinson Map of Dover, Morris County, New Jersey – showing Sussex Street with Mrs Trewatha’s shop circled

So now I’m hoping that with help from my new family contacts, I’ll be able to construct a tree of the US side of the family, which of course are half-siblings to my George Phillips who emigrated to Australia.

To view my earlier related posts, you can find them here:
Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: N is for … Never-Ending New Stuff and New Jersey
Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: P is for … Charlotte PHILLIPS
Christmas Time at the Candy Store

For my Christmas-related post this year, I decided to go trawling through New Jersey’s old newspapers. In particular The Iron Age. This is a small town newspaper for the area of Dover, in Morris County. Lucky for me these have been digitised and put online (for free), so I have spent a couple of days browsing through them looking for adverts of my 4x great grandma’s candy shop. And what fun I have had!!!

Over a period of 25 years (1872-1897), I have found 16 adverts! I won’t put them ALL here, but rather I’ll just choose a few to share with you.

But first let me tell you a little about my 4x great grandma.

Charlotte Phillips was born in Redruth, Cornwall, England in 1822, and married Samuel Trewartha in 1847. He had tough life as a miner, while according to census records Charlotte was a ‘confectioner’, no doubt to supplement the family income.

In 1867 the family made the life changing move to New Jersey, USA where they set up a candy store in Dover, Morris County, New Jersey.

She ran this for years with husband Samuel, though after his death in 1885, her youngest son Richard helped out.

While I’ve never seen any photographs of the shop, I am picturing from the adverts that it was a popular place. For one thing it was there for YEARS! And Samuel (also known as “Candy Sam”) was famous not only for his Black Rock Candy, but also his cough drops.

Enjoy the vintage adverts from 4x great grandma Charlotte’s shop.

And for more on Charlotte herself, you can read an earlier article I wrote about her here.

The Iron Era, 13 December 1879

The Iron Era, 2 December 1882

The Iron Era, 12 December 1885

The Iron Era, 15 December 1888

The Iron Era, 13 December 1889 (**see below)

The Iron Era, 12 December 1890

** As the advert from 1889 is rather hard to read, it is worth transcribing here so you don’t miss the bit about drugs and poison! Yes, truly!!

————————-

Christmas Opening
at
Trewartha & Sons
Dover, N.J.
Toys, Dolls, Games
and articles in general, suitable for Holiday Presents,
Playful, useful and ornamental. Presents for the baby,
for the lady, for the fondest mother, for the sternest teacher,
for the dearest —, for anybody. We also have the largest
stock of CANDIES, FRUITS, NUTS, ORANGES, LEMONS,
GRAPES, BANANAS, FIGS, DATES, to be found in Dover.
We wish to state to the people of Dover and vicinity that we
make all of our own Candies, which we will warrant to be
made of the best sugars, and not from drugs. Buy of us
and save your children from being poisoned.
Parties, churches, socials, furnished with pure Candies,
our own make, at wholesale prices. We also sell a 5 lb box
of Christmas or Mixed Candies for 65c. Come and sam-
ple our candies.
MRS TREWARTHA & SON
Sussex St., Dover, N.J.
[The Iron Era, 13 December 1889]
————————-

Don’t those adverts make you want to see Charlotte’s shop? Well, it does me anyway. Maybe one day I’ll find a photo of it. But at least I have the adverts, and that’s a bonus.

I want to wish all my readers a Happy Christmas. I do hope you have a wonderful time spending it with family and/or friends.

I’m not that keen on study. Never was. And probably never will be. At least not in the long-course-structure-type-learning-thing anyway. But I am continually learning, and expanding my genealogy knowledge because through all of my genealogy-related reading (such as genie magazines, blogs, as well the numerous social media sites), and even just chatting with customers in our store at Gould Genealogy I come across some fascinating websites and interesting info. While not all are relevant for my own research, I still find it interesting. But unfortunately they don’t ALL stay stuck in my head as they should (not enough UHU or blu-tac obviously), so I write them down.

I find writing them down is good, but to be useful I need to have access to my list of interesting links, as I don’t carry my