Cornish diaspora

Cornish emigration consists of Cornish emigrants and their descendants in other parts of Great Britain and in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and Chile.

Cornish emigration has been caused by a number of factors, but due mainly to economic reasons and the lack of jobs in the 18th and 19th centuries when many Cornish people or “Cousin Jacks”, as they were known, migrated to various parts of the world in search of a better life. A driving force for some emigrants was the opportunity for skilled miners to find work abroad, later in combination with the decline of the tin and copper mining industries in Cornwall. It is estimated that 250,000 Cornish migrated abroad between 1861 and 1901 and these emigrants included farmers, merchants and tradesmen, but miners made up most of the numbers. There is a well known saying in Cornwall that "a mine is a hole anywhere in the world with at least one Cornishman at the bottom of it!"

The Cornish economy profited from the miners’ work abroad. Some men sent back “home pay”, which helped to keep their families out of the workhouse. At the end of the 19th Century, about £1 million a year was being sent back from the Transvaal in South Africa alone.

As well as their mining skills, the Cornish emigrants carried their culture and way of life with them when they travelled. They formed tight-knit communities, and did not lose contact with either the people or the customs of their home land. Wrestling competitions took place in the new settlements, Cornish Methodist chapels were constructed, pasties and saffron cakes became well-known to natives of Australia and the United States alike, and the air resounded with the sound of brass bands and Cornish carols, wherever the miners went.

The passion for rugby was exported overseas by the Cornish miners and this helped develop the game in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, all of whom have played in Cornwall (New Zealand 1905, 1924, Australia 1908, South Africa 1906, 1912 and the Māori in 1926).

Specific locations

Today, in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and other countries, some of the descendants of these original migrants celebrate their Cornish ancestry and remain proud of their Cornish family names. This is evidenced by the existence of both Cornish societies and Cornish festivals in these countries, as well as a growing overseas interest in the Cornish language. Many of those with Cornish ancestry are now reviving their heritage and a plethora of Cornish family history and genealogy groups exist.

Australia

In Moonta, South Australia, the Kernewek Lowender (Cornish for "Cornish happiness") is the largest Cornish festival in the world and attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year. In its heyday Moonta was South Australia's second largest town after Adelaide and was predominately settled by Cornish miners and their families. Today it is known as 'Australia's Little Cornwall'. Along with the other principal towns of Kadina and Wallaroo in the northern Yorke Peninsula this mining area became known as the Copper Triangle and was a significant source of prosperity for South Australia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today Moonta is most famous for its traditional Cornish pasties and its Cornish style miner's cottages and mine engine houses such as Richman's and Hughes engines houses built in the 1860s. In Sydney, the suburb of Clovelly is named after the village in Cornwall. Many streets and houses have Cornish names as well as the surrounding areas like Randwick.

Brazil and Chile

Welcome to this website devoted to the Cornish in Latin America. For several years I have been researching and writing about nineteenth and early twentieth century Cornish migration to South and Central America and the Spanish Caribbean. My interest was stimulated after discovering that I had several Cornish ancestors who migrated there as Mine Agents in the late nineteenth century: James, Joseph and William Inch, sons of the Mine Agent of Wheal Buller, Captain James Inch of Redruth. The former two brothers went to Chile and the latter to Chile and then Bolivia. Additionally, their brother, John Veall Inch, was a Mine Captain at Pachuca Mexico and their brother in law Richard Martin Kent migrated to Bolivia. In turn his children, Richard and Katie Kent, a nephew and a niece to the Inch brothers, migrated to Bolivia and Chile respectively.

Much has been written about Cornish migration overseas, but I found that apart from A. C. Todd's book on Cornish miners in Mexico, there was no definitive work that might explain the migration of many thousands of Cornish who like my ancestors, went to Latin America. Intrigued and challenged, I set about addressing this lack of research that culminated in the award of PhD in the summer of 2003 at the Institute of Cornish Studies, University of Exeter.

I have amassed a great deal of information during the course of my studies and decided to make this accessible to those people, who like me, have an interest in this subject. It is hoped that this site will also further the considerable work being undertaken on migration to Latin America from other parts of the British Isles. This website contains an historical overview that seeks to answer several fundamental questions: who were the migrants, why and when did they leave Cornwall, where did they migrate from and where did they settle? Additionally, a balanced evaluation of the Cornish presence in Latin America is presented and the transnational aspect of life arising from migration which shaped the way people lived in communities on both sides of the Atlantic is not ignored.

In spite of many years of research, the data that I have presented here is merely the tip of the iceberg. But maybe you can help to augment this? Do you have information about your Cornish ancestors' migration there that you would be willing to submit, or any letters, diaries, photographs of people, places mines or headstones that you would be willing to share?

It is my intention that this website will stimulate further interest in the historic transnational Cornish connections with many parts of Latin America. I hope that in the future we will see Cornish-Brazilian, Chilean, and Mexican associations similar to those in other parts of the Cornish world and maybe even Cornish towns twinned with their counterparts in South and Central America and the Caribbean. It is time that the Cornish in Latin America are recognised as a vital part of the Cornish diaspora.

Canada

Oshawa and the surrounding Ontario County were also the settling grounds of a disproportionate number of 19th century Cornish immigrants during the Cornish emigration which emptied large tracts of Cornwall. Also, there were major Cornish settlement along the Prairie provinces. Cornish ethnicity is recognised on the Canadian census, and in 2006, 1,550 Canadians listed their ethnic origin as Cornish.

Mexico

In the State of Hidalgo in central Mexico a local speciality originates from the Cornish pasty, called pastes which was introduced by miners and workers from Cornwall who were contracted in the silver mining towns of Mineral del Monte and Pachuca. The majority of migrants to this region came from what we now term the Cornish "central mining district" of Camborne and Redruth. Mineral del Monte's steep streets, stairways and small squares are lined with low buildings and many houses with high sloping roofs and chimneys which indicate a Cornish influence. It was the Cornish who first introduced football to Pachuca and indeed Mexico, as well as other popular sports such as Rugby union, Tennis, Cricket, Polo, and Chess, while Mexican remittances helped to build the Wesleyan Chapel in Redruth the 1820s. The twin silver mining settlements of Pachuca and Real del Monte are being marketed in 2007 as 'Mexico's Little Cornwall' by the Mexican Embassy in London and represent the first attempt by the Spanish speaking part of the Cornish diaspora to establish formal links with Cornwall. The Mexican Embassy in London is also trying to establish a town twinning arrangement with Cornwall. In 2008 thirty members of the Cornish Mexican Cultural Society travelled to Mexico to try and re-trace the path of their ancestors who set off from Cornwall to start a new life in Mexico.

New Zealand

During the 1870's and 1880's, New Zealand had an immigrant drive spearheaded by Sir Julias Vogel of the New Zealand Government. At that time Vogel recognised that the young colony needed labourers, farmers and domestic servants to "bring the country in". Vogel initiated the Vogel Immigration Scheme 1871 - 1888 in which any New Zealand resident could nominate any British resident to immigrate to New Zealand for free if they qualified under the criteria. The criteria was for fit, healthy, young people with primarily labouring, farming or domestic servant skills. The recruiters were told to focus on Cornish and Scots who were known for their hard work ethic and were therefore deemed particularly ideal for colonial life. As the timing coincided with the downturn of the Cornish tin market, a large number of Cornish took up the offer. Many Cornish went to Auckland, Wellington or Lyttelton Christchurch), New Zealand. Many Scots went to Dunedin, New Zealand. Peak immigration under the scheme went occurred during 1872 - 1874. Records of those who emigrated under the scheme still exist and can be searched at most large New Zealand public libraries.

United States

In the Grass Valley, California, the tradition of singing Cornish carols lives on and one local historian of the area says the songs have become “the identity of the town”. Some of the members of today’s Cornish Carol Choir are in fact descendants of the original Cornish gold miners. Statues and monuments in many towns pay tribute to the influence of the Cornish on their development.

Cornish culture continues to have an influence in the Copper Country of northern Michigan, and the Iron Ranges of northern Michigan and Minnesota.

See also

• List of topics related to Cornwall
• Culture of Cornwall
• History of Cornwall
• Celtic nations
• Mining in Cornwall
• Camborne School of Mines

External links

• BBC The Cornish Diaspora - I’m alright Jack
• The Cornish Transnational Communities Project
• Kernewek Lowender - The world's largest Cornish festival
• Cornish Miners and the Witwatersrand Gold Mines in S.Africa. 1890-1904
• Overseas Cornish Associations
• UK Cornish Associations
• The Cornish in Latin America
• Cornish American Heritage Society - Cornwall on the Web