+353 (1) 685 6929 A woman named Loraine Allison has had her claim of being a passenger on the last fateful voyage of the RMS Titanic rebuked with DNA testing. Allison reportedly claimed to have been a young girl that was reported lost at sea on the night in 1912 when the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The child she claimed to be was apparently killed aboard the doomed ocean liner along with more than 1,500 other unlucky passengers.
DNA testing was performed at the urging of Helen Kramer, the real name of the woman, who had long campaigned to get recognition as the legitimate heir to the affluent Canadian family to whom she claimed she was part of. The tests, which were finally approved by living members of the Allison family, concluded that the Kramer was definitively not related to them.
Not a passenger, not an Allison
While Kramer is certainly not the first person in history to try and make themselves into a Titanic survivor, her case is notable in that the fraud was carried out for so many years. While the Allison family never accepted her as the baby girl they lost at sea, many in the media were duped for years into thinking Kramer was in fact Allison: the baby who survived the sinking.
A member of the Allison family, Nancy Bergman stated that “The Allisons never accepted Mrs. Kramer’s claim, but the stress it caused was real. It forced my ancestors to relive painful memories…immeasurable sorrow and unending grief.” In the words of Bergman the fraud was “all about the money.”
Kramer first came into the media spotlight way back in 1940 when she first claimed to be Allison, telling the press then that she was “saved” from the sinking and wanted to reunite with her family. In her claim she alleged that on the night the ship went down, Allison’s father Hudson, placed her in a lifeboat with another man. A man that she alleges she grew up believing was her biological father.
She went on to tell reporters that her adoptive father – the one from the lifeboat – was none other than Thomas Andrews, the naval architect of great historical significance who designed the Titanic. Those claims could never be substantiated as Kramer said he died shortly after informing her of her true identity. Kramers immediate relatives confirmed that they never believed in the story of course further discrediting her. There were others who for whatever reason wanted to believe the story and even apparently lied to help Mrs. Kramer’s case.
As recently as 2012 a woman, Denise Woods, came forward claiming to be Kramer’s granddaughter. She allegedly was in possession of a suitcase containing letters between Kramer and her lawyer that “proved” she was in fact the long lost child Allison.
mtDNA test solves the case?
While no test results from Mrs. Kramer have been officially publicized, a blog which calls itself the “Finding Loraine Allison Project” claims that the tests were completed and proved Kramer is not Allison. Kramer as admitted to taking the test but has not released the results. The Allison family for their part, while certainly not particularly concerned about the results anyways, must conclude that had the results shown a biological relation with them – they most certainly would have been publicized by Kramer.
Other related articles and resources
The words DNA and genetics constantly make it in the head lines. DNA has been used for countless criminal investigations, helping police solve the case and finding closure for everybody. But this was not quite the case with the forensic evidence collected during the Meredith Kercher murder in Northern Italy. View it here.