In the 1800s why did some of our ancestors decide to leave for overseas and others go to places in the British Isles? Why did some stay put? How much was movement determined by factors such as occupation, gender, place of birth or upbringing?
These were some of the questions that prompted a long-term research project that I initiated back in the 2000s. The original idea was to track everyone who was aged 11 in Cornwall in the census of 1861. I soon discovered that it would take too long to do this so it became a 50 per cent sample. Every other 11-year old in 1861 was traced through the census and civil registration data from birth to 1891 or time of death if earlier. Their occupations and locations have been entered into an access database, which was completed at the beginning of 2024 and contains 4,136 individuals.
The family histories uncovered or implied from the decennial snapshots provide a window onto the lives of our great-great or great-great-great grandparents. This was a generation that grew up in the boom years of the 1850s and early 1860s but then had to negotiate the economic slumps that occurred with grim regularity from the later 1860s to the mid-1890s. This was also a time when emigration gathered pace and when the population of Cornwall began to shrink, a decline that lasted until the 1960s.
As I was finishing the tedious and much-interrupted work typing up the database records, I wrote at least one short blog about each parish. There were a few more for the bigger ones. These included examples of life courses based on the records in the database. That qualitative picture of the migration of one Cornish generation of the nineteenth century can now be supplemented by a series of blogs presenting some quantitative evidence.
Cornish studies resources 
Hi, my great g/f William Jeffery born 23 Aug 1845 became a tin miner had 8 children married Susan Grace Bawden in Menheniot on 27 Aug 1885. He died 17 Mar 1886 in Menheniot at age 40 of miners lung. Buried in Lanteglos. I would like to know whereabouts the miners cottages were at that time, and which mine did he mine in. I can give you the names of all of his children too.
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Presumably William was married twice or had a lot of illegitimate children if he was only married to Susan for less than a year! You could probably locoate the cottages of the 1880s fairly easily by using the first edition of the OS 25 inch map – freely accessible at https://maps.nls.uk/ – together with the census enumerators books for 1881, assuming the addresses in the latter are sufficiently detailed and then comparing it with a modern map or google earth to see what the current housing looks like. Identifying which of Menheniot’s mines (they were lead mines not tin) your ancestor worked in is much more difficult if not well-nigh impossible and would involve hours of checking through any surviving cost books of mines in the area. Even then not all the miners are listed, just the leaders of the pares that agreed the contract. Puzzling that William died in Menheniot yet was buried in Lanteglos. Neither of the two Lantegloses are very near Menheniot and neither are mining parishes.
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hi
my name is John Bawden
my great grandfather was William brother to Susan Grace he immagrated to Australia in 1873
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I would be interested to find out whether the Methodist Church or its offshoot the Bible Christians provided support to tin miners in the 1850s in order to migrate to the goldfields in Victoria from 1852 onwards.
My XX grandfather Peter Wellington (1808 to 1854) residing in the region of StBuryan and Sancreed married Rebecca Hosken (1808- 1872). Peter Wellington migrated to the goldfields Victoria in 1853 and died of typhoid in 1854 in the goldfields of Bendigo
My question relates to whether the Methodist Church provided support for tin miners who were no longer able to get remuneration from tin mining, resulting in migration to the goldfields in Victoria Australia.
Peter Wellington and his sons and daughters do not appear to have had resources that would have enabled them to have travelled to Australia and my thought is either they were receiving support from the Methodist Church to whom they belonged or else there was a company that was providing finance that enabled them to migrate to Victoria.
Any help by the Cornish Project relating to Methodism would be appreciated. I would be happy to remunerate any research that follows from this request.
Paul Wellington
pwell.iinet.net.au
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An interesting question. I’ve come across no evidence that any religious denomination in Cornwall directly supported the costs of emigration. I got the impression it was not something they were desperately enthusiastic about in any case as it was having a deleterious effect on congregations and income in Cornwall. Some charitable bodies may have supported emigration and of course, before the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, parish authorities occasionally paid the costs of migration if the family or individuals were likely to be pauperised and be a cost on the poor rate. I haven’t seen much evidence for Poor Law Guardians doing the same, however. My feeling is that most of the miners and mining families who emigrated raised the money themselves, through savings, borrowing from family and the like. That’s why emigration peaked not just in bad times but in good times when earnings were higher than average. For instance, in 1853 Cornish mining had reached its peak of productivity and remained there until the mid-1860s. The finances of emigration, as opposed to the remittances that flowed back, do not seem to have been comprehensively covered by specialists on the subject.
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I’m related to the Jeffery, Craze, Jewell and other old families of Illogan and districts in Cornwall. I visited the cemetery of St Illogan last year to see the graves of my ancestors – James and Mary Jeffery (new Jewell). Such a great experience.
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I’m a NZ-born descendent of Bryant Vercoe (parents Philip Vercoe and Jane Odgers) and Elizabeth Tiddy (parents John Tiddy and Ann?). Married at St Just in Roseland in 1837, Bryant and Elizabeth emigrated from Plymouth to New Plymouth on the Timandra, with one young child dying on the voyage and another – Richard – born at sea. Richard married ex-St Teaths Emma Henwood in 1862 and I’m descended from their youngest child. I’ve traced further back too, but I’ve got stuck at John and Ann Tiddy on one side of the tree.
Do the above names crop up in your research? I’d be keen to find out if they were farm labourers, stonemasons or something else? Presumably not tin miners as the places of birth are all around St Just in Roseland and St Mawes. And how they got presumably assisted passage?
Thanks for your great website. I’m just starting on learning more about my Cornish great granny’s background – but it seems it’s harder to trace the matrilineal side.
I recently visited St Just in Roseland from my home in Australia and found a family gravestone – Samuel Vercoe. He died young but I don’t know why.
Others may be in St Austell. Next time!
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Hello, I was wondering are you still working on this project? If yes I have found my fathers side of our family (men side) Cornish Name. I can send to you , let me know.
Thanks
Cameo
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Yes, any info still welcome – email is bernarddeacon@yahoo.co.uk – thanks in advance
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