Cornish Families on film, in sound and on record

The material about Cornish family life is being made available through a DVD of testimony films, a programme of audio CDs and a book. Free copies of the resource material will be given to museums, libraries and schools in Cornwall, thereby ensuring that this vast array of information is easily accessible. As a major specialist library for Cornish Studies, the Cornwall Centre in Redruth is deeply involved in the knowledge transfer with the University. It will also hold the audio and video recordings for researchers and the general public.

The audio visual archive reflects the huge interest in family history over recent years and is seen as an important area of research.  The tremendous interest for genealogy in the South West is reflected by the fact that Cornwall Family History Society is one of the largest in the UK. The University of Exeter’s Institute of Cornish Studies has helped to support this general interest by providing academic expertise and resources which have resulted in this extensive collection of archived material.

Stories such as that of the Davey family who play and have played a significant role in Cornwall’s musical culture can be found in the ‘Narratives of the Family: Kinship and Identity in Cornwall’ project material. Merv Davey has been prominent in the revival of Cornish dancing in recent years and his son and daughter also promote Cornish folk music both in Cornwall and further a field; yet that musical tradition dates back to the 1880’s and provides a sense of continuity with the past.

Dr Garry Tregidga from the Institute of Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall Campus said, ‘Historical studies of the family tend to be conducted using conventional sources like census data and letters whereas this project has been able to demonstrate the importance of oral tradition and photographs from studying the family. It also challenges the assumption that oral history is only about the life time of the interviewee we have been able to collect stories that have been passed down over several generations.’

The project asks questions about how people contrast family and kinship down the ages to the present and what family means to different people.  Many families throughout Cornwall have contributed by talking about the different ways they relate to Cornwall, with experience of families who have lived in the area for generations as well as those who have moved to Cornwall and those that have a strong sense of spiritual belonging all find a place within the archive.

Dr Kayleigh Milden (CAVA) looked at the relationship between family and place for the book, alongside articles by the volunteers who explored particular recordings in order to provide examples of the rich oral tradition in Cornwall.  She said, ‘To this day many Cornish descendants are very passionate about belonging to this global ‘Cornish Family.’

The ‘Narratives of the Family’ project took care to ensure that it covered the customs and traditions of different ethnic groups in Cornwall by closely linking with groups like the Equality and Diversity Service of Cornwall Campus.

The renowned Cornish author E.V.Thompson has also contributed to the book in a chapter in which he explores the importance of family in relation to Cornish literature.