We set off early Thursday, heading on the A30 to Redruth. Our first visit to Cornwall. They have their own version of Celtic Gaelic language which has died out, but we saw signs of classes to revive the language. The idea was to find some of the villages where my great-grandmother's parents the Trudgeons, and great-great grandparents, the Solomons, Watts,and Kellow's had lived. We also have Parkin, Olver and Pearce names to look out for, if we want to go back further.
The visitors' centre was interesting and helped us to focus on where we wanted to go. As far as I can ascertain Eliza Solomon (My great-great grandmother) is the only one who came from Redruth - Her daughter,Catherine Sebella, my great-grandmother, may have been born there. (Does anybody know?)
After lunch we set off to Pool, Illogen. This was very close to Redruth. What a neat little village. We came across a National Trust site where a restored steam-powered beam engine was working. (It would have been used to pump water from the tin mine.) We were told that everyone, living in that village, would have been involved in the mine. Women worked above ground - men below. We can assume that Catherine Kellow's family lived and worked here.
We then drove to St Stephen, Brannel. All this time I had assumed that St Stephen's was a church in Brannel. I discovered today that the town's parish is St Stephen-in-Brannel. There is a lovely old church, of course, called St Stephen's. We explored the churchyard and found a number of interesting tombstones.
I don't have documentation on any of these - more research needed!
Note from Doug: filled up the Peugeot 308 diesel today for the first time: 460 miles took 32 litres. That's 736 km from 32 L = 23 km per litre or 4.43 l per 100 km or 65 mpg!
1 comment:
Look at that sky! What a beautiful day. Interesting places, it's nice to see where our family came from. Impressive mileage as well.
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