Rosina Thomas Philips Leverich (c. 1856 – 1915), 60, was the mother of Rosina Philip Leverich. Mother and daughter were sailing aboard the Lusitania to visit the elder Rosina’s son, William Edward, then living in London, England. Both mother and daughter were lost in the Lusitania disaster, and only the mother’s body was recovered and identified.
Rosina T. P. Leverich was the daughter of Alexander Philips and Rosina Thomas of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. They later settled in New Orleans. Rosina married William Edward Leverich, and a daughter, also named Rosina, was born to them in New Orleans around 1886. A son, named William Edward, was also born to them.
In May 1915, mother and daughter boarded the RMS Lusitania to visit Rosina T. P. Leverich’s son, William Edward, in London, England. When Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk on 7 May 1915, both mother and daughter were lost. The daughter’s body was never recovered or identified, but the mother’s body washed ashore in Ireland, where her son William Edward identified her body by a piece of jewelry hidden inside her whalebone corset meant as a safety charm.
The entries for both mother and daughter in the Family Bible read: “. . . died 7th May 1915. Murdered by the Germans in the sinking of the S.S. Lusitania by torpedo.”
Contributors:
Bill Mears
Robert Zink (relative of the Leveriches)
References:
“RMS Lusitania.” Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild. Online. Accessed 24 February 2012. <http://www.immigrantships.net/v4/1900v4/lusitania19150507.html>
Searching online for Rosina Thomas Philips with reference to Lusitania I came across this page. We always heard that a Louisiana relative had died on the Lusitania. My late grandmother’s family tree shows that Rosina would have been my great great aunt, her father was I.N. Philips from Amsterdam, her mother Sarah Bankhead McCoy of Belfast! But this doesn’t fit with the above description. Generations seem to have been muddled up. Our family tree shows no reference to the name Leverich (Rosina’s married name). I’d love to know more about Robert Zink’s connection and his references, and where Rosina was laid to rest. We think Rosina had two brothers who fought for the Confederates. Her sister, Elizabeth Wren Philips, married my great grandfather Thomas Charles Cole in 1886. Their five children all had a middle name of Philips.