THE UNKNOWN TITANIC CHILD

Days after the Titanic sank the body of a baby boy was found and recovered from the North Atlantic. After the child could not be identified he was buried in Nova Scotia with a tombstone reading simply ‘The Unknown Child’. In 2001 researchers at Lakeland University in Ontario were granted permission to exhume the body. By consulting the passenger lists they had narrowed down the possible identity to one of four children: Gosta Paulson, Eino Panula, Eugene Rice and Sidney Goodwin. Initial tests concluded that the body was Eino Panula. However in 2007 this was shown to be not true. More advanced DNA testing was carried out on a tooth from the body and when compared to the DNA of a surviving Goodwin relative it proved an indisputable match. It confirmed that ‘the unknown child’ was Sidney Goodwin. Sidney was the youngest of six children born to Fred and Augusta Goodwin from Fulham, England and were immigrating to Niagara Falls New York. (All were onboard) Neither Sidney’s parents nor his siblings’ bodies were ever recovered.

Interesting Fact: The sailors aboard the recovery ship were very upset by the discovery of the unknown boy’s body and paid for his monument. He was buried on 4 May 1912 with a copper pendant placed in his coffin by recovery sailors that read “Our Babe”