Back in the mists of time – around 20 years ago – I began a long-term research project aiming to study the migration patterns of a single Cornish generation at a detailed individual level. It was based on a systematic sample of all children born in Cornwall in 1850 and still alive in 1861. The … Continue reading Where did they go? The Cornish generation of 1850
Tag: migration
From Camborne to Cleckheaton – with family support
Sometimes in the past relationships broke down, as we saw in the case of Jenny Moore from Calstock. Sometimes, no doubt, the laconic entries of census enumerators and registrars may hide family quarrels underlying the departure of a family member. Yet, at other times, those same records can hint at a high level of support … Continue reading From Camborne to Cleckheaton – with family support
Ludgvan: globetrotters and stay at homes
Luidgvan, one of Cornwall’s larger parishes, situated to the east of Penzance, survived the difficult times following the late 1860s rather better than many other rural parishes. This was despite the fact that over half of the men in the parish worked as miners in the 1850s. Its population declined by a third between the … Continue reading Ludgvan: globetrotters and stay at homes
Life stories from Kilkhampton
Kilkhampton is a farming parish situated in the far north of Cornwall, about as far as you can go and still be in Cornwall in fact. Not that the border between Cornwall and Devon acted as much of a barrier in those parts, The majority of the Kilkhampton children in our database who married chose … Continue reading Life stories from Kilkhampton
Gwinear: the American connection
Although there were no major mines within its borders Gwinear was another Cornish rural parish whose people depended heavily on the health of local mining. Seven out of every ten adult men in 1861 worked in and on the mines, as did half of the women with paid employment. As in other rural industrial parishes, … Continue reading Gwinear: the American connection
Gwennap: long-distance relationships
The previous blog raises the question of how many of the children of Cornwall’s mining districts in 1861 lived in households with no male head, their fathers either away working or dead at a young age. Of the 107 Gwennap children in the database who were living with parents or other relatives, over a third, … Continue reading Gwennap: long-distance relationships
Gwennap: from riches to ruins
Mary Ann Kneebone was the daughter of John Kneebone, a mine engineman in 1861, and his wife Mary. They lived in the small hamlet of Trevarth in Gwennap, at that time one of Cornwall’s most populous parishes, home to over 10,500 people. Ten years earlier, John had been tin mining in Crowan a few miles … Continue reading Gwennap: from riches to ruins
Miner’s cottage, manor house and famous neighbours
As the examples in the previous blog showed, some of the children in our Victorian Lives database did not move far beyond the confines of the district in which they grew up. Others, for a variety of reasons, broke away and by the time they were 40 their childhood landscapes were just fond memories (or … Continue reading Miner’s cottage, manor house and famous neighbours
Cubert: local moves and global migrants
Cubert is a small parish between Perranporth and Newquay which supplied five children for the database. One has not yet been traced beyond 1861; the others all left the parish at some point but three of them only moved within the confines of mid-Cornwall. Cubert churchtown As an example, we can take James Edwin Hubber, … Continue reading Cubert: local moves and global migrants
Praze people
Thomas Laity was born into a large mining family in the village of Praze in Crowan. His father William was a miner, as was his oldest brother while two grown-up sisters worked as bal maidens. There is some suggestion that his parents had migrated during the depressed years of the late 1840s, as his sister … Continue reading Praze people
Cornish studies resources 