Mariyam Yūsuf Tu’mah was a child passenger on the Titanic.
Background[]
Mariyam Yūsuf Tu’mah was the only daughter of Darwīsh Tu’mah and Hinnah Yūsuf Rāzī when she was born in Syria in the village of Tibnin. This area was under Ottoman control at that time and later became part of a new country: the Lebanon. Mariyam was the first child of the married couple who were Tibnin natives as well. She came into this world on October 16, 1902. She was the sister of Jirjis Yūsuf Tu’mah, who was born on Feburary 8, 1904.
Her father worked on the land and farmed. He harvested his own onions. In 1905, not long after the birth of his son, he emigrated to the USA to find work there. His new home became Silver Creek, Michigan. He could have been a helper of building railroads or helper on a farm. Having saved every penny and making roughly a dollar each hour, he could finally have his own farm in 1911 so he did oninon farming there as well.
In February 1912, It was time for the family to be reunited with Darwīsh. For that, they had to come all the way to the United States from Tibnin. It wasn’t an easy journey. They had to cross the hot dessert with a caravan of camels before they could get to the port of Beirut. At Beirut, a freighter would take on people who wanted to go to Marseilles in the South of France. Having passed the health checks, they took a train to northern France. They would stop in Paris. From there, they could go further north to Cherbourg.
Titanic[]
On April 10 in the evening, Mariyam, her brother and mother were at the port of Cherbourg waiting to be taken aboard Titanic via a small tender. They were Titanic’s passengers in Third Class. Mariyam was 10 years old at the time. Especially Jirjis was gawking at the huge vessel and when they were on board, they enjoyed exploring their part of the ship and ran to every corner and staricase, like many young kids would do.
It was Sunday, April 14 at night, when there was an uproar. The time was 11.40 P.M. when Titanic struck something.
At the time of the collision, her mother Hinnah searching for her daughter and was standing in the doorway of the family’s cabin. She was talking to one of the other migrants from her village. It was just a jolt, but it made the door slam shut, cutting her index finger. Two of the men went to find out what had happened while Hinnah went to the Infirmary to get her hand bandaged. Everyone she passed wondered what had caused the jolt and why the ship had stopped. The people looked worried, but Hinnah could not understand what they said. The men returned and said the ship had struck an iceberg. They were told to remain calm, stay in their cabins, and pray.
Mariyam meanwhile had sneaked into a vacant cabin and had fallen asleep, unbeknownst to her, her mother had been searching for her everywhere. Mariyam must have not woken up before her mother found her. But Hinnah made sure that her son was on the Boat Deck first. Then she came back down to look for Mariyam, who then walked out the cabin.
Hinnah wasted not time and took her daughter back up to the Boat Deck, where Jirjis was still waiting. Luckily he had listened to his mother but he was almost rescued by other passengers who spotted him. With the three now together again, they could board a lifeboat and were saved that way.
From their boat, they could see the giant Titanic go down but their mother tried to protect them from the sight of the dieing people.
After the sinking[]
When Titanic had disappeared, her survivors waited for rescue to come. It took a while, but then the RMS Carpathia, a ship that had picked up Titanic’s distress calls, made it to the scene at 4:00 A.M. For the men, women and children that were safe, this was a big relief. They would live to see the day.
Later in the morning, the Carpathia was done with gathering all of 706 people and set course for New York. She got there on the 18th of April. The Tu’mah’s were cared for in Saint Vincent Hospital and were given money to make their journey by train to the town of Dowagiac.
Meanwhile their father had no idea what was going on. It was not before Hinnah’s telegram had reached Darwish’ doorstep, that he came to know what they just had escaped. They would soon arrive in Dowagiac. For Mariyam, this was a happy reunion. After so many years, she could finally see her father again.
Later life[]
Mariyam and her family were now complete and living in Dowagiac, Michigan. Mariyam would be accompanied by many new brothers in the 1910s. Darwish and Hinnah went on to have three more children, all boys. Sam came first in 1913. In 1914, a brother followed named Francis and the last was Joseph in 1916. For the integration, they had to anglicize their Syrian names. Mariyam would now be named Maria while her mother continued as Anna and her brother was George from here on. The family were residents of Dowagiac, for 8 years. For the next 3 years, they had their home in Michigan City in India, but moved again, this time they went to Flint, Genesee, Michigan where they would permanently settle.
Maria had her own family when she got married to Lebanese-Syrian immigrant, who's parents were US citizens since 1910. He was Nicholas Haddad and he was 5 years older. Their ceremony took place in 1919 on the 28th of July in Elkhart, Indiana. They lived together in Dowagiac but later they took a house in Flint, Michigan. Maria dropped 6 children. The first was a daughter, Emma, who was the only child for a while, she was at least 8 years old when she had a brother in 1929, as William arrived. Emma was born in 1920. After William came Daniel in 1932, followed by a sister, Pearl, in 1935. The last two children were Gerald and Francis, born in 1938 and 1940 respectively.
Maria battled a long lasting liver cirrhosis and because of that, she didn’t become very old. Her husband and even her own mother survived her. Maria died on August 12, 1953 at the age of 50 in Flint, Genesee, Michigan, United States,
Legacy[]
It was in 2002 that her brother George’s son Joseph Louis published a book in which he wrote about the biographies of the three from the Thomas family that had taken the voyage on Titanic. He had gathered information from her mother Anna when she was old and stayed with her grandson Joseph and his family, consisting of wife and 4 children, for 14 years. The book was named ‘Grandma survived the Titanic.'
Maria's daughter Emma was still alive as of 2013.