Family Matters - 1. Margaret Goninan
Margaret Goninan was one of three surviving daughters of Edward Goninan and Margaret Rodda. She was baptised at Crowan Church on the 24th June 1787.
Margaret married Samuel Bastard on the 23rd October 1806 at Crowan Parish Church. I suppose the name ‘Bastard’ is slightly embarrassing but it was fairly common in those days. However, as will be seen, there is something odd here with the name. The researcher, Mr Bowden, in the index to his transcript has cross-referenced the names Bastard and Bastian. He doesn’t say why but it looks as if the names were interchangeable in some way. Thus we find these baptisms:-
Thomas, son of Samuel & Margaret Bastard baptised Crowan 3rd March 1808 (died in August of that year)
Samuel, son of Samuel and Margaret Bastard baptised Breage 23rd July 1815 (I am assuming that this is the same Samuel and Margaret)
Thomas, son of Samuel and Margaret Bastian baptised Crowan 14th Sept 1817
Hannah, daughter of Samuel and Margaret Bastian baptised Crowan 18th Dec 1821
If we go on a generation, we find a Samuel Bastard jnr married a Jenifer Moon on the 18th October 1833 at Crowan but we then find several children baptised at Crowan, parents Samuel and Jenifer Bastian. I have not found a marriage for a Samuel and Jenifer Bastian and it begins to look that the way the name was recorded depended on the whim of the person making the entry.
Perusing the church records for Crowan has been a somewhat depressing experience. As mentioned before, the burial records sometimes show the cause of death. If we take 1814 as an example we see that there were 47 burials but of these only 14 were of people over the age of 50. Some of the causes of death and the ages of the deceased were as follows:-
measles (age 3)
fall in mine ( age 32)
inflammation of the lungs (infant)
run over by a carriage (age 36)
scarlet fever (ages 3, 6, 9 and 20)
in labour (age 27)
worm fever (age 3)
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that so many Cornish left their homeland to seek a better life in the new world.
Going back to Samuel (senior) and Margaret, the next task is to try and find them on the 1841 census. For this I can use the excellent free sites http://www.freecen.org.uk/ and http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kayhin/ukocp.html . Both are ‘work in progress’ but the Cornwall coverage is good. The first site covers all the UK and the second is just Cornwall.
A search for Samuel Bastian (or Bastard) though gives disappointing results. A search using the UK site finds Samuel jnr but not Samuel snr or Margaret. The Cornwall site doesn’t even find Samuel jnr (which must be a fault). I gave up with this and tried the 1851 census and using a combination of the two sites I found Samuel snr living at Churchtown in the Parish of Madron. Samuel is 74 and described as ‘a pauper – was an engineer’. He was born in Crowan Parish. Living with him are four daughters – Mary age 41; Anna (Hannah?) age 28, a mine labourer; Ann age 24 and Eliza age 16 a mine labourer. Anna and Eliza were born in Crowan Parish, Mary in Breage Parish and Ann in St Erth Parish (from this I found her baptism on the 21st Aug 1825). Samuel is shown as a widower and subsequently I found the burial of a Margaret Bastian at Madron on the 28th Nov 1850.
Having found Samuel in Madron, I wondered if the family had been living there in 1841 so using the Cornwall census site I browsed through the Madron records basically looking for anyone called Samuel and I found them although the name has been recorded as Bastern which is why I couldn’t find them before. Samuel is described as a tin miner and there were five daughters – Mary, Hanna, Ann, Elizabeth and Eliza.
Samuel Bastian jnr
Samuel Bastian jnr, was baptised on the 23rd July 1815 at Breage Parish Church. He married a Jenifer Moon on the 18th October 1833 at Crowan and in 1841 Samuel and Jenifer were living in Crowan Parish and they had two children, Jenifer, age 5, and Samuel age 2. Samuel was a copper miner. Note Jenifer (or Jennifer) is a very Cornish name. In those days it was often shortened to Jane which can confuse the unwary genealogist.
By 1851 Samuel and family are living in the Parish of Newlyn East which is near to the north coast of Cornwall to the north of Truro. Samuel is a lead miner. There are now five children, Jenifer, Samuel, John, Elizabeth and Mary. The mine East Wheal Rose in Newlyn East was unusual in that it produced lead and silver rather than the typical tin and/or copper. At its height it employed some 1,200 men, women and children. In 1846 disaster struck the mine which was flooded following some unusually heavy rainfall. It seems that a Samuel Bastion was something of a hero saving the lives of eighteen miners. We cannot be sure that this was ‘our’ Samuel but it seems very likely. The events were as follows:-
The East Wheal Rose Mine was struck by a disaster in which 39 men died. On 9th July 1846 a thunderstorm caused a flash flood. The mine was in a natural bowl, and the flood waters had nowhere to go except into the mine. Captain Middleton organised 300 men to pile up earth around the collars of the shafts but the volume of water pouring down was so great that soon torrents of water poured down the shafts. This caused a wind to blow that extinguished the candles that the miners used underground. So when the water hit them, they were in utter darkness. Captain Champion somehow managed to climb the slippery ladders against the tremendous weight of down-rushing water. A timber-man, Samuel Bastion, went down into the mine to lie across a manhole, diverting the flow of water and saving eighteen lives. The beam engines were put to work in raising men to the surface, clinging to the kibbles and chains 'like strings of onions'. Forty-three men and boys were missing but four of them were brought up alive next morning. The lower levels of the mine were completely flooded. But, by November 1846 all the debris and water had been cleared and the mine was in full production again. Source:-
http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/mines/north-cornwall-perranzabuloe/wheal-rose.htm
(Note many nautical terms are to be found in Cornish mining – for example mine managers, shift leaders, etc were called ‘Captain’ and depths were measured in fathoms.)
By 1861 Samuel had given up mining and was a farm labourer at Four Burrows in the Parish of Kenwyn. There are two more children, William Thomas and Jane Sophia.
In 1871 though Samuel (now about 57) is back mining. They are now living in the Parish of Kea and only William Thomas is still at home.
Samuel died in 1876 and we will now follow two of his sons, Samuel (3rd) and John.
In 1871 Samuel (3rd), like his parents, was living in the Parish of Kea. He is a miner and now married. His wife’s name is Ann and they have three children, Elizabeth age 7, Minnie age 5, and Samuel John age one month
John is living in Camborne Parish. He is a tin miner also married. His wife is called Johanna and they have three children Johanna age 7, Emily age 5 and Eliza M age 2. John died in 1880 age 39.
In 1881 Ann and family are still in Kea Parish. Samuel (3rd) is not recorded but Ann is not shown as a widow so Samuel must have been away (perhaps overseas). She still has the three children. Her daughter Elizabeth is now 17 and she is a dress maker.
Joanne (now widowed) has moved to the Parish of Illogan with her children - Joanna, Emma (Emily?), Eliza, Melly, John Henry (born 1877) and Samuel Frederick (born 1879)
In 1891 Ann and family are in Chacewater. Ann is now a widow but her three children are still at home and Samuel John is now a tin miner
Joanna is living in Tincroft Row, Illogan and there are three children at home, Lettie (Melly?) who is a tin mine labourer, John Henry, a tin miner and Samuel Frederick
Both John Henry and Samuel Frederick are to be found on the 1901 census. John Henry married Jane Trengove in the quarter ended March 1901. Samuel Frederick married Edith May Jolley in 1909. Samuel John has not been found on the 1901 census but he got married in Cornwall in 1906. These three Bastians are all great, great grandchildren of Margaret Goninan.
The Story Continues:-
I then got to thinking, did any of these three go overseas?
Searches on the Ellis Island site and Ancestry.com have revealed the following:-
Samuel F Bastian – arrived in New York on the 25th March 1906 heading for Larium. Larium in the Keweenaw in the Upper Michigan was well known to the Cornish. Indeed the Cornish were at the forefront of the exploitation of the copper deposits in this area. The ship manifests lodged with the authorities at Ellis Island can be a wonderful source of information. The amount of detail varies but sometimes you can find, for example, a physical description of the person, age and occupation, a contact address at home and a contact person and address for the final destination. In this case we can see that this was Samuel’s first visit to the US; he was single and a miner; did not have a ticket to his final destination; had with him $75 and he gave his contact as his brother-in-law, W. Ellis, who was living in Larium. At this point I have to confess I allowed myself to get distracted. If W. Ellis was Samuel’s brother-in-law then Ellis was married to one of Samuel’s sisters – which one and where was she, in Cornwall or the Keweenaw? – I just couldn’t resist following this trail:-
A trawl of the marriage index gave me a marriage of a Lillie Bastian to a William Ellis in December 1893. This is almost certainly Samuel’s sister – she is variously described in the censuses but when born her name was registered as Lilly (Sept 1874). I then wondered if she had joined her husband in the Upper Michigan and a search on the Ellis Island records turned up trumps. She arrived in New York from Southampton on the 9th April 1905 heading for Kearsarge in the Upper Michigan to join her husband (so she left before her brother, Samuel). With her were four children (all of them of course being descendents of Margaret Goninan) – William J (age 10), Bertie (9), Florence (4) and Phyllis (10 months).
Prior to this, on the 1901 census, we find William and Lillie were living in Illogan, next door to Lillian’s mother where Samuel was also living. William is described as an engine driver stationary from which we can deduce that he probably operated one of the mine engines which came in three types - pumping, winding and the stamps for crushing the ore on the surface. Samuel is described as an underground tin miner.
So did William and Lillie stay in the US? For this I did a search on the 1910 census and found the whole family in Calumet, Houghton County in the Keweenaw. It is beginning to look as if there is another branch of Goninans out there in the States waiting to be discovered.
In 1920 they were living in the Centennial district of Calumet (there was an important mine here). William is described as an engineer stationary in a copper mine and William jnr was an insurance agent. Bertie is no longer at home.
In 1930 of the children, only Phyllis is still at home. William and Lillie own their own place and it is valued at $100. They had a radio set. William is still and engineer and Phyllis is a clerk in a music stores. Beyond this I have not been able to uncover anymore information but it seems reasonable to assume that there are descendents of William and Lillie in the US.
What happened to her brother, Samuel Frederick?
Further searches of the ship manifests revealed first a reference to Lillie’s other brother John. He arrived in New York on the 22nd Sept 1906 heading for Globe, Arizona (another copper mining town well known to the Cornish). This was his first visit to the US and he was joining a friend, Ed Emmett, in Globe. The next entry found was for Samuel again. He arrived in New York in April 1913 heading for Terry, South Dakota. This manifest also tells us that on a previous visit to the States he also had been to Globe, Arizona.
By 1915 however he is in Long Beach, California. His wife, Edith, arrived in New York aboard the Cameronia from Liverpool on the 5th Sept with their son, Frederick, on her way to join her husband in Long Beach.
Samuel is on the 1920 US census but he is alone (were the family back in Cornwall visiting?). Samuel is in lodgings and he is a labourer in a warehouse.
We next find Edith arriving in New York aboard the Celtic from Liverpool on the 9th Dec 1924. She now has three children, Frederick (14), LeRoy (5) and Harold (4). LeRoy was born in the US.
Edith gives her contact back in Cornwall as her father, a Mr Jolley of High Broadway, Redruth and her destination as Long Beach, California. She is joining her husband and the address given is 820½ American Avenue, Long Beach. She is just 5’4’’ tall with fair complexion, dark hair and grey eyes. She states that she intends to stay in the US and become a US citizen. By this stage the family seem to have opted for the spelling Bastion (shades of Goninan and Goninon).
Given that the family planned to stay in the States I was confident I would find them on the 1930 census. But not so. I have tried all sorts of variations without success. Perhaps they were back in Cornwall visiting family. I do believe however that they did settle in California because on the California death index on Ancestry.com there are two of the children shown – Frederick A Bastion, born 6th April 1910, died Los Angeles 22nd Feb 1968, mother’s maiden name Jolly and Harold John Bastion, born 12th Dec 1920, died 1st Nov 1942. It seems very likely that there are descendents of Samuel and Edith alive in California today, waiting to be found.
Postscript 1 - I am delighted to say that not long after I had completed this item, I was contacted by Sue Dent, a descendant of Margaret Goninan, who had found me via my website and the reference there to the Bastians. Sue is descended from Jennifer Bastian the eldest child of Samuel Bastian and Jennifer Moon making Sue a great, great, great, great granddaughter of Margaret Goninan. Since the main purpose of doing this research is to find living descendants and expand the family tree, I was very pleased to hear from Sue.
Postscript 2 – I decided to have another go at finding Samuel and family on the 1930 US census. This time I started from the assumption that they were there but the name had been indexed incorrectly. I searched for anyone living in Long Beach with the name Samuel who was about 50 years old. This brought up several pages of possibilities and looking through I found them – indexed as Bastron. There are a few people living in California today with the name Bastion so it’s possible some at least are Goninans.
Postscript 3 – I think Frederick John was still in Cornwall in 1911 but I have not double checked this.