Cousins marrying cousins and a habitual criminal!!!

 Wow, what a day of research!  Started out exploring the new General Register Office digital certificates program.   For only 2.5 pounds, you can get a immediate digital image of a birth or death (sadly not marriages).   I was thinking who do I need a cert for, and what new information might it show me.  For some reason, I was looking at my direct Pearce line, and I thought, aha! What about the child that was born and died between censuses.  So I ordered that cert, and got the first address of the family when they moved to Torquay (from St Ive, Cornwall), and the fact that the child died of measles (9 days duration).

I then ordered a death certificate for William Pearse/Pearce, showing his death in Callington in 1855. And from there started going back down his line, to his GG Grandaughter Vera Pearce.  Her parents being Thomas Pearce and Annie Hetty Gooding.  I expected Thomas to be my 2nd cousin 2x removed, but when I looked at Annie Hetty Gooding, it showed her as my 6th cousin 1x removed......WHAT??!!?  How was she related to me --- so did some checking and sure enough, she comes down from my Furzeland line!

Now the fun really began, as her Father, John Henry Gooding (son of John Rowcliffe Gooding and Elizabeth Ann Furzeland) turns out to be a habitual criminal!!!  He has a long history of forgery, and lots of documentation to read through!  And then he changed his name to Frank Hall, and goes on to marry again under that name and having a second family!  He's my 5th cousin 2x removed....

I'm still sorting through it all, but what a rogue!  

Levant Mine Cost Books -- Pendeen, Cornwall

 On a recent trip to Cornwall, I was able to visit Kresen Kernow (the County Archives) -- and do some research on my GG Grandfather Thomas White.

Thomas was killed in a mining accident in 1854 at the Levant Mine in Pendeen, Cornwall.  There are newspaper reports on his death, which provide fascinating (and gory) details.

On a previous visit to the Mine, one of the volunteers showed me copies of the Levant Mine paybooks, which showed my Thomas White being paid to take a load of ore from the Mine to the Quay at Penzance.

On this visit to Kresen Kernow, the Archivist let me look at 3 Cost Books they had from the time period 1849-1854.   It was incredible to be able to handle these 170 year old books!  The books were filled with familiar names, and I was able to find my GG Grandfather Thomas White, AND his Father Edward White (my GGG Grandfather) -- both were Tributers.   There were multiple entries for them, and I took hundreds of photos of the various pages/entries.   Now to sort them all out and add to the Family Tree -- it may be a long project!  

Cornish cousins

 Going back to my Cornish lines has been eye opening!  I did some of this research years ago, and was perhaps not as diligent as I should've been.  There are many common names, and it was too easy to just assume that John Oats married Jane Ellis, when in fact there are multiple Jane's he could've married. 

Just yesterday, I noticed a Julian Oats marrying a Paskow Greinfield/Grenfell.  I had Julian as a male, and Paskow as a female --- as did many online trees.  Well, that's WRONG!  Paskow is the male, and Julian is his wife.  This was confirmed via the OPC site (see below).   

So, I've gone back to doing multiple checks to verify I have the right couples, and subsequent children.  My process involves:

    Checking the OPC (online parish clerk) database - for baptism, marriage, burials

    Checking the British Newspaper Archive - birth, marriage, death announcements, and other articles

    Checking West Penwith Resources webpage -- they have Parish BMD's and other valuable info

    Checking online Ancestry Trees -- this can be very unreliable, but sometimes gives you a hint to further research on the above sites.

    Checking some Private databases I have access to (from Cornish Association of Victoria)

So, bottom line -- be diligent, don't just accept an online tree/hint, without documenting!