Roscoe H. Oney, Greaser, Mercantile Marine Reserve, was the son of  Lincoln and Fanny Oney. He was born in June 1883 in Kansas, Illinois. Fanny, born 1873, in Pennsylvania, was his stepmother. We have been unable to find out who his birth mother was. Lincoln and Fanny Allen married in September 1891 in Greeley, Colorado and had two children together: Dana, who was born 1892 and his sister Lydia, born 1905.

Roscoe enlisted in the US Army in 1905 and was discharged on the 28th of November 1908. He again enlisted on the 22nd Dec 1908 at Fort Slocum, New York. In February 1909 he is listed in the returns for Fort McPherson and in the Returns From Regular Army 17th Infantry 1909. 

We see him in the census return April 1910 listed as a soldier at Fort McPherson, Black Hall, Fulton, Georgia. He was then dismissed without honour in September 1910. 

At this point he seems to vanish but reappears in September 1916.  He is on a passenger list from the Sicilian, traveling from London to Montreal, Quebec, Canada along with a number of other British Naval Ratings. Several of these men become his crew mates on the Laurentic.

Roscoe H. Oney’s body was never recovered. Sadly it seems his family knew nothing of his fate. Only his friend  Louisa Hall, 24 Bibby’s Lane, Bootle, Liverpool was notified of his death. When his father died in 1938 his obituary made no mention of Roscoe.

Sources:-

United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900 and 1910. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900
British Commonwealth War Graves Registers, 1914-1918. London, England: Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
War Graves Roll. The Naval and Military Press Ltd.
Ancestry.com. U.S., Returns from Military Posts, 1806-1916
www.newspapers.com
www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk