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Archiver > CORNISH > 1998-04 > 0891724920


From: Violet Sunderland <>
Subject: 1841 Gwennap census
Date: Sat, 04 Apr 1998 13:22:00 -0800


Hi to all,

I am just about to close in on the 1841 Gwennap census and have most of
my notes transcribed and ready to send out. I've divided the info into
blocks of 5-7 pages to try to avoid overloading.

Several things need to be mentioned. I was very disappointed that so
much of the film received at the LDS Family History Library here was too
faded to read at all. I've suggested to the volunteer that a note should
be attached to it when it is returned, listing the enumeration districts
that can't be researched. Perhaps Salt Lake City has another copy in
better condition.

Being a "furriner" (foreigner), some names have been very hard for me to
decipher and/or recognize and I've made some notes here and there, plus
lats of question marks where I was unsure of the text. Please jump in
and clarify whatever you find that was a puzzle to me but may be
familiar to you.

For any of you that haven't worked with censuses:
"do" = ditto.
"Ind" = Independent
Ag Lab = Agricultural Laborer
F L = Farm Laborer
M L = Mine Laborer

One enumerator was heavily into abbreviations and I am sure made up
some. He might be the same one who, if unsure of spelling, either
managed to overwrite or scrawl in such a way as to make the word totally
undecipherable.

For those of you who don't have these, here are a couple of URLs that
may help shed some light on the census in general, and give you some
clues as to problem areas:

http://www.firstct.com/fv/oldhand.html -- old handwriting

http://cpcug.org/user/jlacombe/terms.html -- occupations

I started out with lookup requests from Barry Andrew, James Kneebone,
Dorothy Tregoning, Richard D Jefford II, Cindy Douglea, Ted Walker,
Valerie Wotton, Dan Grundy, Deb Brumbaugh,
Pam Peterson, Jackie Monk, Shirley Brewer, (Have I left anyone
out?)......Some of these were specifically to me for this particular
census, and I picked up more from the list as time went by. At first, I
thought I would just do the specific requests and post them but it has
proved so interesting that I've transcribed the information from the
beginning and followed through to where I am at present so that when all
the blocks are put together, they will be in the order in which they
appeared on the film.

My original purpose was to see if I could find James KNEEBONE with wife
Elizabeth who came to America (Jo Daviess Co. Illinois) with son John
who was also born in Cornwall. This older son was listed as age 10 on
the 1850 census and his next younger sibling was born July 1842, so if
the family didn't come over when the first son was practically a
newborn, they should be on an 1841 census for one of the parishes where
there were KNEEBONEs (I think). Well, I found a Hugh KNEEBONE residing
with another family, and then several districts over, a Henry KNEEBONE
family so thought I would copy pages continuously for a ways to study
who the neighbors were and possibly get a clue as to what Elizabeth's
maiden name was. Wouldn't you know I would run into another block of
pages too faded to read, so it looks like I've been shot down on that
quest for the time being.

At any rate, I have 14 segments ready to go out. Let me know how fast I
should go, as I know there are variables with servers and individual
systems. I extended the time I may use the Gwennap film for another
month and, on St. Patrick's Day, ordered the 1841 Sithney census, so
we've got a long way to go. Hang in there!

Best Regards and thanks for your patience,

Violet Sunderland

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