Kernewek
Lowender 2013 - May 20 to 26
Overland Gold – Cornish Convoy
27-30th May 2013
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Hocking Descendants Society
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Kernewek Lowender
2011 and other recent Photo Galleries
News from Cornwall
To
read the report of the Gorsedh Kernow - Helston 2011
follow this link
Follow
this
link to peruse the list of new Bards in 2011
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December Meeting: Christmas
Luncheon
For the second year running the members
gathered for an old-fashioned luncheon
together. The venue was festive, the
food was plentiful and the variety
extraordinary. When all were
satisfied there was caroling and quizzes
to entertain. The images below tell
something of the story.
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November Meeting: Tom and Libby
Luke. Title: Bendigo, it’s
Cornish.
Tom and Libby are both extremely
passionate about and proud of their
Bendigo Heritage, with both being
descended from miners who came to
Sandhurst (Bendigo) in the middle of the
19th century seeking their fortunes during
the Gold Rush. Both are Bards of Cornwall
and Tom was awarded the prestigious Paul
Smales Award by the London Cornish
Association. Libby is a noted philatelist.
Their other interests include training
people to record their Family History on
computer and photographing and recording
all the headstones in local, interstate
and even in Cornwall Cemeteries. To date
they have completed 22 cemeteries.
Together they retraced the steps of the
Cornish Miners who in 1852 trekked
overland from the copper fields of South
Australia to Bendigo. Another DVD was
produced covering this trip simply titled,
“Burra to Bendigo”
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Tom and Libby after presenting "Bendigo,
It's Cornish" for the final time.
Tom is holdoing a transcript.
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Their motto is:
"Some men see things as they are and say,
'Why?' We dream things that never were and
say 'Why Not?'"
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October
Meeting
Due to David Bannear's unfortunate
illness, Robyn Coates stepped into the
breach and showed us over the ‘Lost
Gardens of Heligan’, near Mevagissey.
The Heligan estate was bought by
Sampson Tremayne in 1569; Heligan House
was built by William Tremayne in 1603 and
substantially rebuilt by Sir John Tremayne
and extended by Henry Hawkins Tremayne and
John Hearle Tremayne. Unusually for
Cornwall the house is built of bricks
thought to have been made on the estate.
In 2008, The Lost Gardens of Heligan were
granted National Collection Holder status
by Plant Heritage for their historic and
unique collection of camellias and
rhododendrons introduced to Heligan
pre-1920. There are more than 70 veteran
camellias and 350 ancient rhododendrons
included in the collection. The earliest
rhododendrons in the collection were
raised from seed collected by Sir Joseph
Dalton Hooker, in India during his
expedition of 1847-51.
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September Meeting
Robert Gribben, as our speaker, under the
title of "The Varieties of Methodism",
began with something of the lives of the
founders, John Wesley (born 1703) and his
brother Charles (born 1707). They
were both ordained as priest in the Church
of England and remained so. Robert
exposed the myth that Charles was the
musician explaining that Charles only
wrote the words of over 6000 Hymns for
which he is now famous. The tunes
were assigned or written by others.
John has been described as a "benevolent
dictator" who travelled extensively
preaching the Gospel including 31 visits
to Cornwall and many to the USA.
After John Wesley's death in 1791
divisions arose leading to "The
Wesleyans", "The New Connection", "The
Independent Methodist", The Primative
Methodists", "The Bible Christians" and
"The United Methodist Free Churches"
There was parital re-unification in
Australia in 1902 and a similar
re-unification in the UK in 1932 and the
USA in 1939.
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Robert
Gribben and Robin Pryor
holding the map of the Parish of Sithney
donated by Patrica Eade
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Di Christensen and Jenny Harkness
during afternoon tea
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August Meeting
Our President Robert Gribben opened the
meeting and we sang, Hail to the Homeland.
We were delighted to hear that two new Bards
had been appointed from Australia
– Peter Mundy (Bendigo) and
Julie Wheeler (Tomerong, NSW).
Julie has been involved with the Southern Sons of
Cornwall in NSW for many years and is also the OPC
for Redruth. Peter has been involved in the
twin city project with Bendigo and Penzance.
We offer our congratulations to them both.
Following a short business meeting, Bill Phillips
shared some information from a Thomas family
history given to him by a new found ‘cousin’
continuing the trek from Burra to Bendigo as
outlined by Moira Drew at the July meeting. This
concerned members of the Thomas and Roach
families.
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Our speaker for the afternoon was Jenny Harkness whose
topic was, ‘What’s new at Family Search?’
Jenny, who is a member of the Latter Day Saints Church,
has been researching her family for many years and has
recently discovered a Cornish connection.
Using the internet, Jenny was able to show us the features
of Family Search - www.familysearch.org
With more and more records being added as the microfilms
are digitised, it is worthwhile to continually keep
checking the site.
JULY MEETING
About 65 gathered together for the July
meeting.
Some came early to do research, whilst
others just gathered for lunch and
enjoyed a good time of fellowship. All
enjoyed the meeting and afternoon tea.
Following the singing of ‘Hail to the
Homeland’, our new President, Robert
Gribben, welcomed everyone and
introduced himself. Robert paid tribute
to the life of Ron Angwin and informed
us of the recent deaths of Bard, Susan
Pellowe (USA) and author E V Thompson.
Our speaker for the afternoon needed no
introduction, as it was our friend and
CAV member, Moira Drew.
An archivist by profession, Moira has
been working on ‘The Overland Gold
Project’, for some years, trying to
un-fathom the journey from South
Australia to the goldfields of Victoria
in 1851/52 (mainly Bendigo and
Castlemaine) undertaken by many
thousands of miners and their families.
Moira’s interest developed from research
into her Roach and Ninnes families and
the trek to Bendigo from Burra
undertaken by Thomas and Maria Ninnes
and their family.
Sadly, Maria Ninnes and two young
children, Grace and Jane, died soon
after completing their travels from
Burra and are buried in a lone grave on
the outskirts of Bendigo.
Many details of the experiences of those
who travelled were included in Moira’s
talk and these are included on the
Overland Gold Website which also
includes an interactive map and a blog.
This can be found at: http://www.cornishvic.org.au/overlandgold |
Moira presenting and
receiving Award
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Moira has prepared an excellent DIY Travel
Guide and hopes that through town Information
Centres and family History Groups along the
route, that interest from the general public
will develop.
Her meetings with local history and visitor
centres to date have been positive.
A group of people
from the CAV has indicated their
interest in following the route either
to or from Kernewek Lowender in 2013.
Robert thanked Moira and congratulated
her on a wonderful achievement and an
outstanding research project. Robert
presented Moira with an Award for
Excellence for her work.
Robert also presented a
certificate of appreciation to Arthur
Coates for his work on the CAV website. |
Arthur with Robert
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June Meeting - Annual
General Meeting
Bill Phillips chaired the Election of the
CAV Committee and sincerely thanked the previous
year’s committee for their hard work.
Special thanks was made to Neil Thomas for his two
years of service as CAV President and Bill
presented Neil with a certificate of appreciation.
Rev Prof. Robert Gribben was voted in as incoming
President.
We look forward to Robert's contribution over the
next two years.
Our Treasurer, Rod Phillips, recommended that we
needed to increase Membership Fees (which had not
been increased since 2004) and the increase was
carried.
New fees for 2012/2013 are: - Single $30.00,
Family $45.00 and Life $330.00.
An honorary life membership was presented to Derek
Trewarne for dedication and outstanding
contribution to the Association.
Certificates of Appreciation were presented to:
1. Gladys Grigg and Michelle Tresidder for
their work over a number of years in the Library.
2. Lynette and Graeme Madden for their work in
arranging a very successful tour of Aussie folk to
Cornwall.
3. Bill Woodward for all his work in entering
Library Catalogue information into the computer
register - this was presented at a later date as
Bill was not able to be at the AGM.
Lynette Madden gave a brief report on the Cornish
Tour and all those who had returned were given a
warm welcome home.
A most informative DVD of the ‘The Cornish In
South Australia’ followed and was thoroughly
enjoyed by all.
May
Meeting
Patron Bill Phillips paid a sincere
tribute to Lesley Morton following her
death the previous week. Bill was able to
also share a tribute on behalf of the
Cornish Association at her funeral and
shared with the meeting the DVD of her
life.
Lesley will be sadly missed but the CAV
will always be grateful for her work,
support and care over many years.
Tren Harvey then shared his story of
growing up in St Just as a 12 year
with his brother in the early war years.
As a child, being so far down south he was
not as aware of the effects of the war.
He kept us fascinated and entertained as
he talked and showed pictures of a plane
which had crashed in a paddock near his
home and school and hunting for bits of
aircraft around the area, and a ship
struck at sea just out from St Just.
They used under the stairs as an air raid
shelter until they had a more substantial
one.
Two girls joined the family as part of the
evacuee program and the family enjoyed
their company for two years.
The death of his father had a huge impact
on the family and a number of changes
resulted.
Food rations and ration books were all
part of the war years, but because they
lived near farms, Tren’s family was not as
affected as some.
Tren’s presentation was greatly
appreciated by all members present.
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Tren
Harvey
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April Meeting
During our
April meeting, members of the Cornish
Language Group presented a short play, in
the Cornish Language, entitled, ‘She
doesn’t like pasties’.
English sub-titles enabled the audience to
follow the play, which, according to one
of the participants, Peter Trevorah, had
received ‘rave’ reviews in the USA.(well
at least one review).
It was a fun time for the audience and the
participants – Janet, Stephen, Peter, June
and Marjory - seemed to enjoy it also.
An open invitation awaits anyone keen to
learn the Cornish language and according
to Peter, ‘Janet provides wonderful
hospitality’.
Viv Martin was our key speaker and to
commence the afternoon there was a short
tribute for ANZAC Day ‘to the fallen’ and
Viv noted his family’s particular loss
Private Charles Martin, his father’s
brother, who was killed at Pozières in
1916.
Viv’s father, John Kenneth Martin, was an
Army Chaplain during the Second World War
and we were able to ‘visit’ many of his
postings through the wonderful collection
of images that Viv has amassed.
Ordained as a Church of Christ minister,
‘J’K had many postings throughout
Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. The
family were living in Ballarat when Viv
was a youngster between 1942 and 1946 and
after the war moved to Bendigo where his
father had a career change and became a
chiropodist.
A presentation was made to June Whiffin
for her organisation of our participation
in the Eaglehawk Dahlia and Arts Festival. |
Derek
presenting flowers to June, Viv Martin
and selected players
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March Events -
see Recent Galleries
February Meeting
Our guest was noted Australian children's
authour Hazel Edwards and her topic was
"Writing a Non-Boring Family
History".
We learnt the the Federal Government gave
Prince Fredrick and Princess Mary books
written by hazel as presents for their
children.
Hazel is a 2012 Australian Ambassador for
the national Reading Program.
Hazel told us of her universal secrets for
writing, which she suggested could also be
applied when writing Family History.
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Hazel
Edwards showing members some of her
books
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These included the importance of anecdotes, a
catchy title, coming from an unusual perspective
such as that of an animal or an item of relevance,
resist telling the story chronologically if
starting with an important event can grab the
readers interest and/or sharing "heroes" not just
dates about dead people.
The meeting began with a rousing rendition of
Trelawny ended with the usual expansive
spread. A great time was had by all. |
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