Records of the tragedy free to view online

More than 200,000 Titanic-related records have gone online to mark the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

The records have been gathered by family history website Ancestry.co.uk, and include lists of the dead and information about some of the survivors.

Those logging on can read the last will and testaments of the Titanic’s captain, Edward Smith, as well as those of American tycoons Benjamin Guggenheim and Colonel John Jacob Astor IV.

All three were among the more than 1,500 passengers and crew who died in the maritime disaster.

Other records now online include images of grave headstones of 121 Titanic passengers, more than 329 coroner inquest files and records of 330 bodies that were recovered at sea.

The new website also has a passenger list from the vessel Carpathia, whose captain and crew bravely battled through the ice-strewn North Atlantic to rescue more than 700 survivors from the Titanic’s lifeboats.

The collection is free to view until 31 May.

Ancestry.co.uk content manager Miriam Silverman said: “Over the generations, many families may have heard rumours that they had an ancestor on board the Titanic, or even lost the evidence proving it.

“We are very pleased to be able to offer access to these valuable records for free, enabling thousands to uncover the story of their ancestors’ tragic voyage.”

PETER WOODMAN