Gerhard Abbing died when his children were young and Catharina had to find work as a washerwoman until the children were old enough to support themselves. The family lived in St Bernard, a subdivision of Cincinnati. Anthony became a blacksmith 2 and in about 1908 the still unmarried 38 year old accepted contract work in South Africa and remained there for three years. He was returning to Cincinnati and boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a third-class passenger (ticket number C.A. 5547, £7 11s).