Hi - Ernie Abel's mother was Frances Webster, my great grand Aunt. Ernie was a first cousin of my grandmother Emily Jane Webster.
It's great learning about the connections with the Abel family - I knew nothing about this until last year. Frances Abel was the daughter of John Webster, my 2nd great grandfather:
John Webster was a Canal Boatman who worked on the Leeds and Liverpool, Bridgewater, and the Rochdale Canal system during the nineteenth century. He was born in 1843 at Downholland near Lydiate in Lancashire, one of five brothers who were all Canal Boatmen like their father William Webster. Their mother Margaret (Hartley) died giving birth to James Webster in 1855. James died four weeks later, and their father William died the following year in 1856.
John Webster married Margaret Sharrock from Burscough at Manchester Cathedral, 12th June 1861 - Margaret was the daughter of Hugh Sharrock, a Rufford boatman. He worked on Mersey Sailing Flats and was skipper of the 'Mary' at Anglesey during the 1861 Census.
John Webster and Margaret were living at Downholland during the Census of 1871. They had three daughters - Margaret, Hannah, Maria, and two sons, William born in 1869 at Halsall who died during infancy in 1877, and Thomas born in 1871 at Astley Green near Leigh. Thomas Webster was the father of my Grandmother Emily Jane Webster.
After the death of Margaret Webster near Leigh in 1882, John married Hannah Baxter, a widower whose spouse David Baxter (1842-1879) had been crushed to death between a barge and a bridge in the Leigh area a few years earlier. They had a child called Frances Webster and worked together on the barge that had belonged her deceased husband.
