Shipwrecks and genealogy research

The other day I was asked why I included shipwreck reports and other sources on these events in my blog. What did they have to do with genealogy? I would have thought this was self-explanatory.

Perhaps if your ancestors had sailed on ships such as the Titanic or the Waratah, for example, entire families - parents and children - were lost in the wrecks. To have so many people from among your ancestry summarily 'taken out' would surely give any family historian pause.

It should also follow that descendants would want to find out as much as possible about the families involved, unearth photos of them, discover their place of origin, read as much context as is available on the ship itself and how it came to disaster. It would be likely to become an obsession for the family historian concerned.

So, I make no apology for including the topic of shipwrecks on these pages and will continue to do so for the benefit of any family historian who is trying to find out more about 'lost' ancestors lying in some unmarked watery grave.