Updated April 25, 2008,
May 5th 2008 I
have by a mysterious yet inevitable
twist
of fate, now become a Titanic
Researcher. Upon visiting the Titanic grave site at Fairview Lawn Cemetery in
Halifax after seeing Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet give their outstanding
performances as Jack Dawson and Rose Dewitt Bukater, 7 times in the theater. (I
have now seen the movie 33 times). James Cameron's Titanic love
story carried us through the tragedy with such a feeling of loss, that young
love, all those lives, lost. I found myself drawn to the grave of the real J. Dawson
in Halifax, after it appeared on the news that hundreds of people were visiting
his grave and leaving their movie tickets and other gifts at the other graves. But, when I got there
for the first time on January 13th 2000, I felt this incredible energy pull me up the hill straight to grave
NO. 243 where I stood for the first time my mouth falling open with
shock.
... I will, for the
rest of my days spend time dedicated to Titanic research. There is more to this
tragedy than we know. Artisans keep their attention on Titanic so you may know
the truth. The connection between the Titanic sinking and the "Federal Reserve
System" is terrifying. I personally have found many
discrepancies with the names of Titanic passengers and crew from different
sources, and during that time in 2000 is when I discovered that someone with my
family name (Stone) was buried right here at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia where I live,
and something was wrong with his name. The
first research project I'm going to start with is grave
NO. 243 E. J.
Stone,
who may very well be a distant relative of mine.
They cried out to me, and I heard them. This
is my question: There were actually three passengers on the Titanic with the family name of Stone.
One was a first class lady named
Mrs.George Nelson Stone (Martha Evelyn)
and the other two were men who worked on the Titanic as Stewards. We have no
idea whether the two men knew each other or were related, but we would sure like
to know. Ironically enough, not only were there two Titanic employees named
Stone, but both of their bodies were recovered after the sinking. One was
marked with the
NO. 41 and was buried at sea on April 21st 1912, and
the other was marked NO. 243 and buried here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. All
that seems simple and clear, but it is not so. Look at the
grave
again. It says E. J. Stone, but none of the documents I found pertaining
to grave NO. 243 has a J in it. Not one. The
J is connected only to body marked NO. 41. These
files are from the
"Record of Bodies and Effects"
courtesy The Nova Scotia Public Archives, that were created as the bodies
were pulled from the water and after they arrived in Halifax. If you look at the two you can see that the
J
in
the name is associated with body NO. 41 and not NO. 243.
I have looked at other Titanic resources and none of them has a J
associated with the body NO. 243. Not one single document! NO. 243. -
MALE. - ESTIMATED AGE, 30. - HAIR, DARK. This is a record from the
Public
Archives of Nova Scotia of a Key List of how bodies were disposed of.
I circled NO. 41 and NO. 243 and as you can see body
243
is listed as UM-Unidentified Bodies Taken to Morgue and body 41
is B-Identified Bodies Buried At Sea.
The opposite of what happened. These two Stone bodies were mixed up.
A J instead of a T. An honest mistake by very sad,
over-whelmed care takers. 
Now this is the really interesting
document! This archive actually says that body NO. 41 was identified
as none other than E. J. Stone! And in fact, there is no body numbered 243
even listed here. If these documents were incomplete when compiled, it simply
confirms that everyone handling the Titanic disaster was overwhelmed with names
and bodies and their duties to care for all those people and effects. I'm trying
to imagine what that must have been like for the Halifax people.
Bob
Knuckle's Body List adapted by
The
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic as their "Official List" has Stone
NO.
243 listed as Edward F. I have no idea where he got that name.
His sources are listed as: Coroner's Records At the Public Archives of
Nova Scotia (RG 41 Vol.75,76A), US Senate Report on the Titanic Sinking;
Titanic International's Guide to the Halifax Cemeteries, Titanic: Triumph
and Tragedy, 2nd Edition. On September 7th, 2000 I posted a request on Ancestery.com asking for information on the two Stone Titanic victims. Eighteen months later on March 4, 2002 I received a notice from Ancestery.com that I had a reply to my post. I was contacted by E. J. Stone's great niece and her husband, Brain and Jane Watkins of New Zealand! I have a transcript of all our private exchanges posted below. Unfortunately, a friend of mine passed away shortly after we connected so I was grieving. I'm not sure what happened, but we disconnected. But not before we exchanged a few emails. They sent me a transcript of a newspaper article stating that E. J. Stone's watch has been sold at auction for £15,000 and the time stopped on the watch was 2:16am, meaning that he was on-board Titanic until it went under, in my mind doing his duty, he may have even helped saved some lives. Brian and Jane Watkins
gave me their personal location information to contact them, which I will not
be posting on the Internet with respect to their privacy. Therefore, their home
address, phone and fax numbers are omitted. I will however leave the email
address since they posted that on the Internet, although I'm not sure if it's
still working.
Finally, after alerting the seasoned researchers at Encyclopedia Titanica I see now that someone named Steve Coombes has recognized this mistake as well and has done the research I could not do since April 2000 when I posted this information under the nickname venus33 in my questions to Titanic researcher Michael Findlay. Good work Steve! It was just a matter of time. Gold Star for you! Thanks man! (E. J.) Stone Family Information"Edmund Stone was born in Southampton in 1879. He was the son of William Stone (Railway Inspector) and Agnes Mary Jane Stone. In 1881 the UK Census has the family at 7 Brinton's Terrace, Southampton. With William and Agnes Stone were their 4 children John (b. 1874 Southampton) James (b. 1877 Southampton) Edmund (b. 1879 Southampton) Albert C (b. February 1881 Southampton) Also with the family was Joseph Medway Stone, the younger brother of William Stone, at that date he was a coppersmith. Edmund Stone was living with his wife, Elizabeth Agnes at 105 St Andrew's Road, Southampton when he signed on for Titanic in 1912. He was lost in the sinking aged 33. His body was subsequently recovered from the sea by the Mackay-Bennett, assigned #41 and then buried at sea. Although there is a gravestone at Fairview Cemetery, NS with the inscription 'E J Stone' this is in fact in error and in fact relates to E T Stone (body #243)" Steve Coombes Edward Thomas Stone Family Information
"Edward Thomas Stone was born in 1882/83 in
Shirley, Southampton. He himself quotes his birthplace as Cornwall when
signing on Titanic but this appears to be erroneous. (It is currently
assumed that he lived there for a while when young). He was the son of
Edward George Robert Stone and Harriett Matilda (nee Mantell). His
father was originally of the village of Chideock in Dorset (baptised
there 2 May 1858) and his mother born at West Cowes, Isle of Wight in
1862. The couple had married at Wareham, Dorset (at the parish church of
Wareham Lady St Mary) in late 1880 and in the following April census has
them nearby the church, on the quay, at the New Inn where Edward’s
father is shown as the innkeeper. Steve Coombes Both the STONE men's grave pictures can be seen
larger on
this lovely webpage. So, there is no doubt now that a mistake was made and E. J. Stone is not buried in the grave marked NO. 243 at Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Which means that the man who is buried here, Edward Thomas Stone does not have his name on his grave, and only since 1953 has his name appeared in remembrance on his sisters grave, yes I shed some tears upon reading this. I think it's his human right, and so my last questions are ...
Can we give
Edward Thomas Stone his name on his
grave where his body lies?
If you think the grave should be changed, Still want more Titanic? Click the title below to read my personal, emotional, journal written when the three Titanic bodies were exhumed in Halifax, Nova Scotia later identifying the Unknown Child in May of 2001.
Click below to visit the Titanic Graves in Halifax,
If you have any questions or comments about my Titanic research,
Copyright©2013MysteriousNovaScotia.com Thank you for your interest!
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