Pastimes And Hobbies

Whats the difference between Jacks and Jennys? - excuse my ignorance. I had 2 males and 1 female emigrate out to Burra here in South Australia if thats what you mean.

Im very raw when it comes to Cornish tradition but Im keen to pick up any snippets along the way in my POE journey.

I had one male go to Canada and 1 also to South Africa. And one or two who regularly come up on shipping records as far as India and even Japan.

Tell me, Was part of the Cornish countryside raped of trees to feed to mining industry? Here in Burra the landscape is quite barren because of this.

Hi Gary , simple, a Cousin Jack is your tin (or copper) miner who left Cornwall because of the collapse of the industry at home and travelled to the four corners of the earth in search of work at the bottom of a hole in the ground in a hard rock area with minerals/ore to be won. Cousin Jenny is his wife or daughter who travelled with him, many of the women had to stay at home and just hope their men could find work and send much needed money home or sometimes send for their family if work was plentiful and a new life could be established many many miles from their homeland. Today the descendants of these intrepid folk cling on to their heritage and many Cornish associations exist in the areas where the Cornish settled.

        Your question about trees is an interesting one and one I have never considered or seen details of but when you consider the vast amount of timber used in mining ( pump rods, props , buildings, to name but a few) I must agree that many must have been used in the mining industry. One other snippet- Cornwall for all it's mineral wealth has never had any coal of it's own ( tis a geology thing ) so all the coal needed for the hundreds of steam engines pumping, stamping and winding all had to be shipped from Wales ! On the return journey the ships would return to Wales laden with ore for smelting.

   Hope that helps Gary, Chons Da !