RADIO Wales genealogy researcher Cat Whiteaway is appealing for help to try to find some of the descendants of Titanic local hero Harold Lowe, who was Fifth Officer on the doomed liner, and who's buried near Colwyn Bay.
Lowe, who was born in Eglwys Rhos near Conwy, was the only officer who returned to look for survivors after the liner sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. His was the character played by Ioan Gruffydd in the Oscar-winning film.
Cat started looking into Lowe's family tree for a series of BBC Wales open days all about genealogy. The first kicks off in Caernarfon on Saturday, January 11.
She explained: "I started looking at the Titanic records to show people that they could track down ancestors and relatives from all sorts of sources, and not only from the more well-known records like birth, marriage and death certificates.
"We decided that as Lowe was a local man, and a local hero, we'd like to do a bit more about him, so I've been working on his family tree."
Cat says that the more she discovered about Lowe, the more impressed she became.
"He was a very level headed man, and well as a brave one. It's astonishing to think that he was the only officer to return to the wreckage that night to pick up survivors."
On the night of the disaster, Lowe, who was 29, took charge of lifeboat number 14. He filled his boat with 58 passengers, many of the Titanic lifeboats were famously empty, transferred most of his passengers into other lifeboats, then went back with three volunteers to look for survivors in the freezing water.
Masses of dead bodies floated there, supported by their lifejackets.
Lowe and Able Seaman Joseph Scarrett pulled 14 people out of the water, only half of whom survived the cold and exposure. Lowe then rigged a sail to his lifeboat and when dawn came, steered his passengers to the approaching rescue ship, the Carpathia.
Of the 2200 men, women and children, passengers and crew aboard the Titanic when she hit the iceberg, only 705 survived.
Says Cat Whiteaway: "It's clear that Lowe was an unassuming man - he didn't think he was a hero. He knew what his duty was, and he just did it.
After the Titanic, Lowe carried on with his life as a Merchant Navy officer, but he never commanded a vessel. He married Ellen Maria Whitehouse in 1913, and they had two children, Florence Josephine and Harold W George. Lowe died in 1944, and he and his wife are both buried at Llandrillo yn Rhos. His gravestone makes no mention of the Titanic.
Cat Whiteaway is now hoping that she can trace some of Lowe's grandchildren, or great-nieces and nephews, in time for the Radio Wales open day on January 11.
If you're a relative of Harold Lowe, then please contact Look Up Your Genes, BBC Radio Wales, Cardiff CF5 2YQ or e-mail genes@bbc.co.uk.
And if you want to find out if Cat was successful in her research, or if you'd like plenty of help and advice about discovering your own ancestors, come along to the Look Up Your Genes open day at the Celtic Royal Hotel in Caernarfon from 10am till 4 pm on Saturday, January 11.
