The blog post has been written to accompany the Journeys into Genealogy interview with Dr Lesley Trotter, author of “The married widows of Cornwall”, where we discuss researching Cornish family history, emigration and the Cornish diaspora and much more.
Tips from the interview
- Do your usual searches for births, marriages and deaths and put together an outline / history for each person you are interested in.
- Find the family you are looking for in each of the English censuses from 1841-1921 and the 1939 register
- Check parish registers and wills on Family Search
- The US censuses can be helpful – most are available on Ancestry
- Check the Cornwall OPC database
- Poor law records may be useful
- Remember people may have travelled abroad between the censuses and returned home so other than a child being born abroad then there may not be records available
- Research the local parish to find out what occupations were popular and what was prospering (or not!) at the time
- Check newspaper articles on sites such as the British Newspaper Archive (subscription) and Newspapers.com (subscription)
- Check with the Cornwall Family History Society to see if they have any records available
- For Methodist records read a guide from the Cornwall Records Office
- Investigate CAN – the Cornish Archive Network as there are many specialist archives, organisations and groups amongst it.
Lesley’s final tip is to “keep an open mind as people were very mobile”
Lesley’s Recommended Resources
Websites
- Kresen Kernow (CRO) – https://kresenkernow.org
- Courtney Library, Royal Cornwall Museum (RIC) – https://www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk/our-collection/courtney-library
- Cornwall Global Migration Programme – https://www.cornishmigration.org
- Mike Keirnan’s database – https://cornwalldiaspora.org
- Dr Sharron Schwartz’s database (Latin America and Mexico) – https://www.cousinjacksworld.com
- Cornwall Online Parish Clerks’ emigration database – https://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/extra-searches/emigrants
Selected books and articles on Cornish emigration
- Appleby, S. The Cornish in the Caribbean (Matador, 2019)
- Arnold, R., The Farthest Promised Land – English Villages, New Zealand Immigrants of the 1870s (Wellington, New Zealand, 1981).
- Blackwell, H.C., From a Dark Stream; The Story of Cornwall’s Amazing People and their Impact on the World (Dyllansow Truran, Redruth, 1986).
- Dawe, R.D., Cornish Pioneers in South Africa – ‘Gold and Diamonds, Copper and Blood’ (Cornish Hillside Publications, St Austell, 1998).
- Dickerson, G.B., Cornish Immigrants to South Africa – the Cousin Jacks’ contribution to the development of mining and commerce 1820-1920 (A. A. Balkema, Cape Town, 1978).
- Fahey, C., ‘From St Just to St Just Point: Cornish Migration to Nineteenth-century Victoria’ in P. Payton (ed.), Cornish Studies Fifteen (University of Exeter Press, Exeter, 2007) pp. 117-140.
- James, R.M., ‘Home Away From Home: Cornish Immigrants in Nineteenth-century Nevada’ in P.
- Payton (ed.), Cornish Studies Fifteen (University of Exeter Press, Exeter, 2007) pp. 141-163.
- Kiernan, M., A Cornish Colony in Mexico (Cornish Global Migration Programme, Murdoch House, Redruth, 2020)
- Kiernan, M., A Cornish Colony in France (Cornish Global Migration Programme, Murdoch House, Redruth, 2020)
- Lay, P., One and All – The Cornish in New South Wales (Heritage 2000 Plus, Queanbeyan, NSW, 1998).
- Magee, G. & Thompson, A., ‘Remittances Revisited: A Case Study of South Africa and the Cornish Migrant, c.1870-1914’ in P. Payton (ed.), Cornish Studies Thirteen (University of Exeter Press, Exeter, 2005) pp. 256-287.
- Nauright, J., ‘Cornish Miners and the Witwatersrand Gold Mines in South Africa, c. 1890-1904’, Cornish History, July 2005 (2005),
- Payton, P., The Cornish Miner in Australia; Cousin Jack Down Under (Dyllansow Truran, Redruth, 1984).
- Payton, P., The Cornish Farmer in Australia (Dyllansow Truran, Redruth, 1987).
- Payton, P., The Cornish Overseas (revised edition, University of Exeter Press, 2020).
- Payton, P., Making Moonta – The Invention of Australia’s Little Cornwall (University of Exeter, Exeter, 2007).
- Rossler, H., ‘Constantine Stonemasons in Search of Work Abroad, 1870-1900’ in P. Payton (ed.), Cornish Studies Two (University of Exeter Press, Exeter, 1994) pp. 48-82.
- Rowe, J., The Hard-Rock Men; Cornish Immigrants and the North American Mining Frontier (2nd impression) (Cornish Hillside Publications, St Austell, 2004).
- Rowse, A.L., The Cornish in America (Dyllansow Truran, Redruth, 1991).
- Schwartz, Sharron P. The Cornish in Latin America: ‘Cousin Jack’ and the New World (Cornubian Press, 2016)
- Todd, A.C., The Cornish Miner in America (H.E. Warne, St Austell, 1967).
- Todd, A.C., The Search for Silver: Cornish Miners in Mexico 1824-1947 (The Lodenek Press, Padstow, 1977).
- Trotter, L,. The Married Widows of Cornwall, the story of the wives ‘left behind’ by emigration (Humble History Press, 2018.
I have put together an Amazon list with some of the books above here.
Cornish family history research done for you
If you would like Lesley to do some Cornish research for you (and she lives near the Cornish Records Office), please visit humblehistory.com.
Listen to Lesley’s podcast interview here: https://journeysintogenealogy.co.uk
If you have any tips for researching Cornish ancestors or the Cornish diaspora please leave them in the comments below.
