My second book about the RMS Titanic and her passengers and crew along with some movie talk. Same rules apply, no drama, trolls, and disrespecting the people on this ship
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September 6th, 1880 - November 16th, 1962
She is a Virgo.
Elizabeth Dowdell was born in West Hoboken, New Jersey to Matthew Dowdell (born 1841), a quarryman, and Alice Carey (born 1843), both Irish immigrants. She had 9 known siblings, many of whom died in infancy: Mary (1867 - 1871), Catherine J. (born 1868), Alice (1871 - 1871), Thomas (1873 - 1874), Rose Ann (1875 - 1875), Paulenia (1876 - 1876), Patrick (1878 - 1882), Catherine (born 1879), and Agnes (born 1882). In the months prior to Elizabeth's birth her family were recorded on the 1880 census residing at Weavertown Road in West Hoboken. Her mother died on July 8th, 1869 and her father remarried to Catherine Matthews. Her father died the following year on March 5th, 1891. Elizabeth received half her father's estate in his will. Although placed in the guardianship of Catherine Matthews, she found herself being looked after by Catherine's sister Mary Ann Matthews. Elizabeth appeared on the 1905 census in the employ of Mr and Mrs. Gilbert Foxwell in Union, New Jersey.
Aboard Titanic/April 14th-15th, 1912: By early 1912, she was residing at Park Avenue, Union Hill when she came into the employ of opera singer Estelle Emmanuel, hired to act as nursemaid to Estelle's 6-year-old daughter Virginia. To trio travelled to Britain aboard the Olympic, arriving in Plymouth on January 31st, 1912. Whilst Estelle travelled on 1st class, Elizabeth and Virginia travelled in 2nd class. With Estelle garnering her a 6 month contract in London she charged Elizabeth with chaperoning Virginia back across the Atlantic to her grandparents in New York. This time they would be travelling as 3rd class passengers aboard Titanic.
The boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton on April 10th, 1912. Whilst aboard they shared a cabin with English woman Amy Stanley. Elizabeth and Virginia were rescued in lifeboat 13.
After The Sinking/Later Life/Death: Elizabeth complained about her treatment aboard the RMS Carpathia, she and Virginia being huddled with the other 3rd class survivors and had inadequate food and being forced to rub shoulders with "Chinese immigrants" (A/N: So sorry you had to deal with rubbing shoulders with Chinese men 🙄). Coming off the Carpathia in New York Elizabeth and Virginia were met by the latter's grandparents, Mr and Mrs. Well and according to them to their house at West 113th Street, Manhattan. She was later reunited with her own family members who had travelled from New Jersey and missed meeting her, believing her to be among the lost.
Following the disaster Elizabeth returned to living and working as a domestic maid in Manhattan throughout thr 1920's and 1930's. She married in Manhattan on June 11th, 1933 to Harry Fierer (July 5th, 1892); her marriage to a much younger man perhaps prompted her to downsize her age by 18 years; she claimed to be 35 but was in fact 52 (A/N: Is 11 years really that big? Because John Jacob Astor IV marriage to Madeleine Astor had a much larger age gap by 28 or 29 years). Harry is believed to have been a military salesman, born in Russia, the son of Jacob Fierer and Molly Goldberg and to had come to the USA with his family at an early age, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1911. He and Elizabeth would have no children and made their home in the Bronx. However, in the 1940 census Harry is listed as single and living with his mother and a sister whilst Elizabeth was working for a family in Hackensack, Bergen, New Jersey and going by her maiden name.
Harry died in 1950 and was buried at Mount Zion Cemetery, Queens County, New York. In the latter half of the 1950's Elizabeth was a special guest at a screening of A Night To Remember where she was photographed with other surviving passengers and crew. She supposedly claimed at the event to still be in touch with Virginia Emmanuel and that she was now married as Mrs. Vera Hanson and living in London. However, no evidence has been found to support the identification of Vera Hanson as Virginia. Elizabeth died on November 16th, 1962 in the Bronx and she is buried in Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City, New Jersey.
