Lyyli Karoliina Silvén

Lyyli Karoliina Silvén was a passenger on *Titanic*.

## **Early life**

Lyyli Karoliine Silvén was born on November 11, 1894. Her biological parents were Aleksanteri Nikolai Silvén and Anna Kraoliina Karjalainen. Lyyli had dark hair and blue eyes. She was often referred to as Lyl.

Lyyli lived in the Finnish part of Torneå, right on the Swedish border, or in Kemi, which is right next to it.

She was related to the couple William and Anna Lahtinen ; perhaps they had even adopted her as their foster daughter. In any case, it was the Lahtinens who brought her to America. They traveled especially for her to Finland in early 1912. The US Senate list lists Anna Lahtinen's brother Albert Sylwan, Hancock, Michigan as the destination. However, the brother in question was named Carl Albert Silfvén, but was known as Charles A. Silvén, and was a photographer in Hancock.

Lyyli was something as complicated as grandfather's half-brother's granddaughter to Anna Lahtinen; in simpler terms, they had the same great-grandmother.  The Lathtinen couple came over in 1912 to fetch her.

On March 16, 1912, Lyyli received a passport, number 135, issued for her in Tornio, so that she could go to America. On the passport she is stated to be the daughter of a customs official.

On April 3, 1912, Lyyli and the Lahtinens went on the *Polaris* to go from Hanko to England. Their next voyage should lead them New York. The trip cost 440 Finnish marks.

## ***Titanic***

In Southampton, on April 10, they got on board the *Titanic*. The Lathinenes had their own cabin. Lyyli shared a cabin with another young, single Finnish woman, named Anna Sinkkonen. They were traveling Second Class. Lyyli was 17 years old at the time, and unmarried.

On April 14, Lyyli was having a dance at a party, and enjoyed herself untill late. Her cabin mate had withdrawn early in the evening, and eventually Lyyli returned. Shortly after entering her cabin, *Titanic* scraped against an iceberg, and the sound and vibration was heard and felt by Lyl, who became very worried. Her cabin mate went back to sleeping, and Lyyli dashed off to fetch the Lathinen’s. Anna Sinkkonen was woken up by a steward, and Lyl reported the news about the iceberg. The women waited for a while but then they were shoved out of the way and pushed to go up to the main deck.

Having arrived there, Lyyli was lingering on the Boat Deck for a while. It may have been because she hesitated to leave the Lahtinen couple; William (voluntarily or involuntarily) did not come in a lifeboat and Anna refused to leave her husband. Lyyli later said that he had been calmly standing smoking a cigar, while his wife had been nervous. Finally, Lyyli had boarded a lifeboat, probably number 16, but it could also have been lifeboat 12.

Upon arriving in New York, she and Anna were cared for by a Jewish "Welcome Home" located at 225 East 13th Street.

## **Later life**

In 1913, she met up with Anna Sinkkonen again, in San Fransisco. She lived there.

Lyyli eventually married Otto Wilhelm Mailanen. He was a widower and his first marriage had given him a child, who was born in 1912. Her name was Aune Josephine. They took their vows on  24 June 1919 in  Solano, California.

On 3 November 1921, Lyl’s mother Anna Karoliina died at home in Torneå.

In the late spring of 1924, she visited Finland and returned to America in June. She arrived in New York on June 10 with Saint Olav. She is listed in the passenger list as a nurse and on her way to Oakland, California, where she already has a ticket. Closest relative in Finland is father Nikolai Silven in Torneå. The trip is stated to have been paid for by her mother, but since the mother died already in 1921, it must refer to the father's second wife, Hilda Maria Tervakangas. In 1924, Lyyli resides at 1939 Opal Street in Oakland, California.

Just over six months later, on 21 November 1924, herfather also died.

In 1930 she was living in Berkeley, California after she moved from Vallejo, California, where she was living with her husband and stepdaughter, in the 1920s.

On 6 January, 1967 Otto died. Lyyli remained in the same place.

On February 5, 1974, Lyyli Mailanen passed away. At the time of her death, Lyyli lived in St., Berkeley, Alameda, California. Lyl and Ottoa are both laid to rest in the same grave of the El Cerrito Cemetery in Berkeley.