Angela Pendegrass (angelamarypen
@t yahoo.co.uk) writes: I'm looking into family links, especially on my
mother's side of the family. My Great Grandmother, Emma
Parsons, nee Webster
(born c1845), was reputed to have married at St Albans Abbey to
John from Usk.
Her reputation is noted in the census as a straw hat maker and how she met
someone from Usk is a mystery I'm trying to investigate. The couple ended up in
Cardiff with my Grandmother as their seventh child. Her father (noted on the
census as a labourer) sadly died when she was eleven and she was put into
service.
Emma can be found in every census between 1851 and 1901 (Ancestry) and your
great grandmother was the 1 year old Emma Webster who was living in
Half Moon
Yard, St Albans in the 1851 census with her parents George (36, Ostler, born
St Albans) and Elizabeth (30, Needlewoman, born
Little Munden) and three older
brothers. In 1861 her parents were living in Carters yard,
St Albans, and this time were
differently described - George (47, groom, born,
Stepney, London) and Elizabeth
(37, charwoman, born Danes End, Herts) - and there was one older brother and a
younger brother and sister at home. [There are several Dane End
in Hertfordshire - but in particular there
is one at Little Munden.]
She turns up as Emma Parsons in
Cardiff in the 1871 census and, as you say,
in the 1881
census she is described as a straw hat maker. This is interesting as many
children in the St Albans area in the 1850s would have learnt to plait straw -
and possibly other home-working skills associated with the straw hat industry.
It may well be that this occupation was comparatively unusual in Cardiff - when
it would have been common in the St Albans and
Luton areas at the time.
It would be interesting to find out what brought John
Parsons from Wales to St
Albans maybe he was involved as a navvy on building railways - or
some other major building project.
There is a web page
for Straw Plait
If you can add to the information given
above tell me.