The latest book by Cornish historian Bernard Deacon covers the unique Cornish surnames. Of the famous rhyme by Richard Carew ‘By the names Tre, Pol and Pen you will know Cornishmen’ Deacon explains, “Actually, you won’t. At most, you’ll only know about one in 20 Cornishmen (or women) by these criteria. Even in the later 19th century, only around 4-5% of people in Cornwall had surnames beginning with Tre, Pol or Pen.”
The famous Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick (he was not English, as described by some) took his high-pressure steam engines to the silver mines of Peru. Large Cornish communties gathered all over the world. The hard rock tin miners were established as far afield as Austrailia; South Africa; Mexico etc; and it’s estimated that 60% of Cornish people formed the population of Grass Valley in California!
And of course Cornish surnames can be found around the UK not least in the mining district of Yorkshire.
This book is a must for Cornish people and the Cornish diaspora all over the world, and could prove invaluable to those researching their Cornish family tree.
The book can be purchased here: The Surnames of Cornwall
CORNOVIA 