| The
connection of my family to Cornwall started in well before 1875 when my Great Grandfather Richard
Bennet Treloar arrived in New Zealand from Cornwall with his young wife Josephine James.
They came to find work. Little did they know that 140 years later I would be delving into
their lives and finding out how they lived. You can read about Richard and
Josephine, their journey to New Zealand on the White Rose and
their parents in the Treloar Family Story and in the James Family Story. Since starting my research I have found out that the Cornish people
are independent, innovative, inventive, and proud. Cornwall is more than just
another county of England. Cornwall is a nation of people mostly of Celtic
origin.
They are different, they are stubborn, they are loyal, they are Cornish. Cornwall
has a very distinctive flag (unofficial), its own tartan (two or three in fact), and National Anthem
(unofficial). The Cornish are passionate about Rugby.
In June 1999, we visited Cornwall
where we went in search of my roots. I wanted to find gravestones. Instead I
found our family were poor and as such they had no hope of paying for a headstone that
would last the weathers of time. I was not lucky. I wanted to find the places
they lived and worked in. Here I was more successful. We found Pednavounder
Farm, we took a photo of the engine house at Wheal Vor, we walked through Helston and up
Church St where Mary lived in 1881 with her children, and down the road where her mother
Jane, sister Jane and niece were all living.
We tasted real Cornish Pasties, the favourite food of Miners. Check
out a Pastie Recipe in my page Things Cornish. We loved
Clotted cream dollopped onto scones with jam - now that is worth trying. Not as
sickly as butter and not as sweet as Whipped cream. |
