I discovered when I was researching my genealogy in Canada that my great great great grandparents had survived the tragedy on Lake Erie in 1850 when the steamer they were on, the Commerce collided with the steamer Despatch. They were James & Harriet Phillips and had their infant son James with them, James Phillips was with the 23rd Regiment of the Royal Welch fusiliers. According to the story past down through our family, Harriet & the baby had landed in the water and her husband James had called to her to forsake the child and save herself but she did not and instead grabbed a hold of some floating debris and hung on until she and the child were rescued. They all three survived and James Phillips & family returned to England and James went on to fight at the Crimea and survived that war too and so our family is here today. Ideally I'd like to see a picture of the two Steamers.
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I discovered when I was researching my genealogy in Canada that my great great great grandparents had survived the tragedy on Lake Erie in 1850 when the steamer they were on, the Commerce collided with the steamer Despatch. They were James & Harriet Phillips and had their infant son James with them, James Phillips was with the 23rd Regiment of the Royal Welch fusiliers. According to the story past down through our family, Harriet & the baby had landed in the water and her husband James had called to her to forsake the child and save herself but she did not and instead grabbed a hold of some floating debris and hung on until she and the child were rescued. They all three survived and James Phillips & family returned to England and James went on to fight at the Crimea and survived that war too and so our family is here today. Ideally I'd like to see a picture of the two Steamers.
Comments may be edited for appropriate language and HTML.
All fields are required.
Not all comments will be posted.
Your email address will be stored so that we may contact you again about your comment, but will not be displayed to the public, or otherwise shared, without your permission.
Comments will not be posted until they have been reviewed.
To make a a simple paragraph break, simply hit [Enter] twice