|
Notes, Information, Stories and
Anecdotes about the families included in this Cornwall & Isles of
Scilly genealogy, plus help required with Cornish family history
research.
|
|
|
Isles of Scilly
|
|
|
Depending on tides and
the availability of a boat, Richard Harris Ellis sometimes waded,
sometimes swam (with an oilskin of clothes on his head) from Tresco to
Bryher when courting his future wife Emily Frost.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cornwall
|
|
|
CURGENVEN as a surname
came into existence as an alias for an ancestor named LEAN, possibly as
a corruption of an earlier name of VENVYN? or just to drop a common
name of LEAN? There was nothing illegal in having an alias, some people
were known by different names in different towns. Even today in English
law there is nothing to prevent a person from having an alias - they
can just proclaim it. |
|
|
|
|
Isles of Scilly
|
|
|
As most family
historians researching genealogy on the Isles of Scilly know, family
history on these islands can be very hit and miss. No parish Registers
survive from before 1726 and there are no Bishops Transcripts. Many
people on the off islands were born, named "married" and died without
the benefit of church service.
If your line includes Jenkin, Ellis, Woodcock or Hicks your search is
even more difficult due to the preponderance of these names. My own
line includes all of them!
When I was young (too young to be interested!) I was told by my Father
how we are descended from the Godolphins and that somewhere along the
line a shipwrecked Spanish sailor crept into the Family. I wish now
that I had paid more attention to his tales of the family and island
life.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cornwall
|
|
|
Interestingly,
from the Protestation
Returns we can see that some of the names in
our ancestry were very rare in the 1640's. In the
whole of Cornwall ( sadly incomplete, see omissions
) there were only 2 Fulpets, 1 Kirken, 1 Travallack,
no Moss / Morse & no Curgenven. This is not
necessarily 100% accurate as some parishes only
included Heads of households, most did not include
females, and some people may have refused to sign,
possibly due to religious concerns, abject poverty,
or they may have been absent from their Parish for
an extended period.
Cornwall Protestation Returns. T.L.Stoate,
1974, at CRO Truro
More
- including the "Protestation Oath of 1641 "
|
|
|
|
|
|
Isles of Scilly
Ship-wreck of the SS Delaware in a winter storm, and our family's part
in the heroic rescue using a six oared pilot gig.
Too long for this page go to -
ss
Delaware Shipwreck Rescue
|
|
Isles
of Scilly
|
Gold ! !
"The Welcome Stranger"
The largest Gold Nugget ever found was discovered by John
Deason & Richard Oates in Australia in February 1869.
The nugget weighed 2284 ounces and was worth over £9000 (around
£700,000 today)
John Deason was born on
Tresco in 1829 to Thomas Deason and Elizabeth Jenkin his wife. These
Deason's are quite possibly, no, probably related to this genealogy,
one of my GGG-Grandmothers was Mary Deason born Tresco 1767.
Unfortunately due to the lack of records prior to 1726 (destroyed by
fire) it is as yet impossible to confirm that the four recorded Deason
families actively baptising children between 1727 - 1741 were related. There
were four Deason fathers, Thomas, John, Henry and Francis, they could
have been brothers or cousins, thus linking all the Deason families on Tresco -
but we may never know for certain. (also many children were born on the
Islands without any record of birth or baptism being made)
|
John Deason & Richard Oats
|
|
|
|
Isles
of Scilly
|
|
|
GGG-Grandmother Mary
Jenkin (b. 1767 Tresco) was also known as "Aunt Polly". The term "Aunt"
was often used on the off islands for the "wise women". These Aunts
were midwives and healers, even performing tooth extractions.
On the mainland they were known by various names:- seeress, hedge
witch, wita, wicce, these wise
women were often solitary practitioners of a spiritual profession,
people in the countryside went to them for knowledge and healing that
required psychic intuition. Traditional village wisecraft is the
survival of fragmented beliefs and knowledge from an earlier archaic
period, but not the survival of an organised universal cult with a
priesthood or covens.
Account of the Isles of Scilly, R. Heath, 1750
Witchcraft
in England. Christina Hole, 1947. More about healers
The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe. Routledge, 1993.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Isles
of Scilly
|
One of the staple
crops on Scilly was the humble potato ( grown by most farmers
& smallholders, including many in this family history ) Yet the
government in 1916 were considering using the
Isles of Scilly as a breeding ground for the dreaded Colorado Beetle,
presumably to be used as a weapon to destroy potato crops in Germany
& occupied Europe. Fortunately for the islands this World War 1
plot was never implemented.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you have any info or stories relating to this
Cornwall & Isles of Scilly family history, please contact me. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This cornish genealogy
website created & hosted by GenProxy
|
|
|
|
|
|