The following might be more insightful for my family than my friends, but why Cornwall?
Cornwall is the southwestern most county of England. It is formally a “duchy”, or a formal territory of the British Crown. Camilla Parker-Bowles is the current Duchess of Cornwall.
Cornwall and the Cornish people are a distinct and unique culture, having had their own language until more modern times. It is famous for its coastal villages, such as Penzance – you know, where the pirates are from. It is very rural and agricultural, but most of all, until the late 19th century, it had been known historically as the world’s leading tin mining region for hundred of years.
Cornwall is the ancestral home of one of my great grandfathers – my mother’s father’s father. Got that? That would be Joseph Wilkins, father of Henry Wilkins. Other family members are of Cornish descent. The grandfather of Don Holman, my 2nd cousin in Clearwater, was a Cornishman by birth.
The parents of Joseph Wilkins were of Cornish descent, but immigrated to America in the mid-1800s. This was William Wilkins (1846-1891) and his wife, Lavinia Gill Wilkins (1846-?). William was a Cornish miner by trade. When the tin mines of Cornwall expired in the latter part of the 19th century, the Cornish miners spread throughout the world looking for mining employment. William and Lavinia left Cornwall and found employment in the iron and copper mines throughout the American midwest. My great grandfather, Joseph was actually born in 1868 on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in America, along with two other siblings. However, when he was a young boy, his mother returned to Cornwall with her children, while William remained in America. The exact reasoning behind this decision is not known.
Here the story takes a strange twist, for Lavinia had a fourth child, a daughter named Emma who was born in Kenwyn, Cornwall.
Lavinia eventually settled in Chacewater, Cornwall to raise her children, and my great grandfather, Joseph thus spent his formative years there, from age 8 to age 17. Lavinia returned to America in 1885 with her children and presumably reunited with her husband, William.
This is my great grandfather, Joseph Wilkins at age 19. This was taken in Michigan, shortly after his return to America. Circa 1890, about the time he married my great grandmother, Sarah Ellen Spry.
In the middle is my great great grandmother, Lavinia Gill Wilkins, born in Cornwall 1846. On the left is her daughter-in-law, Sarah Spry Wilkins, my great grandmother. (She was from the English coastal town of New-Castle-On-Tyne, but that's a whole other blog.) The lady on the right is unknown. This picture taken in Michigan, circa early 1900s.
Both Chacewater and Kenwyn are located just outside of the Cornish town of Truro. I have pieced this story together from several sources and am hoping to possibly do some further research in Truro.
The Cornish pasty – a pastry covered meat and potato pie, is one of the traditional staple foods of the Cornish, and it has followed them all over the world as Cornish miners traveled to ply their trade. It’s an understatement to say that it is a legendary tradition throughout my mother’s side of the family. Most of “us” remember Nana (my mother’s mother) and her pasties; however, Nana’s family was of Scottish descent, not Cornish. Most of you family members might find it interesting to realize that the Cornish pasty is more synonymous with the Wilkins side of my mother’s family, than it is with the Nelson side. However, both families ultimately settled in Calumet, Michigan where the Cornish were quite prevalent in the copper mines of that region. Thus, all immigrant communities of Calumet learned to love the Cornish pasty.
I hope this provides a little insight. Although Cornwall is a magnificently beautiful region, including rolling farm land vistas and coastal seaside towns and villages, it is a bit off the beaten path for international visitors coming to Great Britain. However, it is a popular summer destination for the Brits.
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