Newsletter July 2009
Since its inception in 1991 as the Cornish American Connection, the project has progressed into a worldwide project, the Cornish Global Migration Programme, which is considered as an important source of information as well as being a necessary project to contribute to.
Dr. Fred HARRIS had travelled extensively within the U.S.A. in his research about the Cornish. He had a passion for discovering the people, the individual person behind the statistic and for unearthing the history of the people who had been buried. At that time Dr. Bernard DEACON was questioning the assumptions about migration from Cornwall. To satisfy both of their demands, it was decided to build a record of individual moves overseas. Hence the birth of the Cornish American Connection.
In 1991 the Cornish American Connection was fortunate to have Dr. Fred HARRIS as its financial as well as academic supporter. This enabled the database to be constructed, equipment purchased and the contacts made within the Unites States of America and Canada. The response was so overwhelming that Fred supported a helper to input the information, Moira TANGYE. Dr. Harris also found support for his work from Gage McKINNEY in California and Margaret KORANY in Montreal who were a great encouragement to him. The objectives were to both research the history and to build a data base of as many individual migrants with just the slightest piece of information.
Cornish men had been moving for many years and records show that they were working in desolate places under terrible conditions. While the larger countries were attracting many people, large sums of money were inviting the impoverished Cornishman to more isolated areas. Redruth station was a scene of excitement stemming from the thrill of adventure and of great sadness with families wondering if they would ever see their loved ones again. The stories that arrived back in Cornwall luckily have been passed down through the generations many now zealously written about by historians both amateur and professional.
Because of the Cornish influence worldwide and the modern interest in the history, the Cornish Global Migration Programme overtook the Cornish American Connection. This enabled the data base to then include statistics on Cornish born who moved to anywhere in the UK and or overseas. Some people moved around in the UK and even returned back to the comfort of their home in Cornwall while some made this move before taking the final step abroad. Others attracted by letters received from friends who had already emigrated or from the adverts that were regularly placed in the newspapers, moved directly overseas.
The Cornish Global Migration Programme works in the historic building of Murdoch House, so named as this was where William Murdoch created many of his inventions and used piped gas to light the first domestic home. The Trustees that manage the property had hoped to finance the purchase of the house from the charity of the Society of Friends who had previously covered all of the expenses. This was not possible but were fortunate that a Redruth philanthropist, the Williams Read Charity, decided to purchase Murdoch House for Redruth. The Cornish Global Migration Programme now has to find ways of supporting itself.
The Cornish Global Migration Programme has on its data base about 40,000 names of Cornish born migrants. This has been made possible by the support of information that is given to it, to protect this valuable data for Cornwall’s history. The Cornish Global Migration Programme is a unique project and a vital source for the genealogist. The project requires help in a variety of ways. This includes (a) enlisting volunteers whether to work in our office, in your own environment or to specialise in a particular country (b) to remit copies of migrant stories and permission to use them to enable our web page to be regularly changed (c) sponsors to support the purchase of equipment, printing costs, rental, general overheads and (d) donations.
The Cornish Global Migration Programme needs your help and hopes that you will support the future of this project in whatever way that you can.