I am the direct descendant (great great grandaughter) of Abraham LIGHTBOWN of Blackburn, England. He was born July 1869 to William Henry LIGHTBOWN and Elizabeth Ellen EARNSHAW, both of Blackburn. He had an older sister, Margaret Alice, b. 1867.

In 1889, he married Hannah HAWORTH in the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn. They had 5 children:

Herbert LIGHTBOWN (1890-1963) m. Winifred Ann EVANS
Frank LIGHTBOWN (1892-1949) m. Ethel BROOKS
Ethel LIGHTBOWN (1894-1981) m. David BLAKELY
James LIGHTBOWN (1897-1974) m. Mary P. [Unknown]
Annie LIGHTBOWN (1905-1984) m. Frederick W. DEXTER

The family immigrated to USA between 1895-1905, settling in Whitinsville, Massachusetts. Whitinsville is notable as the home of Whitin Machine Works, the largest cotton machinery manufacturing enterprise in the world at the turn of the century until about the 1940s. All family members were at some point employed by WMW or at the local cotton mill.

Abraham appears to have been a member of the OddFellows and the machinists' union. He died in Whitinsville in 1949. Hannah died in 1954.