Tag Archives: family tree

08/13/15

Thursday Thought: More Synchronicity

Last week I told about Steve Hoskin of Boulder, Colorado, and his interest in genealogy and linking our Hoskin families. However, when we first met him he showed us a picture of his ancestral home in Perrancombe in Cornwall.

Sarah and I determined to find the house during our trip and take a photo for Steve. It was really hidden away, but we found it with the help of our new friends Anna and Mike Parris of nearby Trewellas. Where do they fit into the story? Well, I’ll tell you about that synchronicity next week.

Sarah sent the photos to Steve and here is his reply:
Steve Hoskin's ancestral home.

Steve Hoskin’s ancestral home.

“Thank you so much for  the photos of my Grandpa Hoskin’s birthplace that was called Trusla until about 1937 when his cousins purchased it from the Duchy.
“It had been built on land leased from the Duchy of Cornwall for the span of 3 or 4 lives, and when Grandpa’s uncle died in 1933 his was the last life on the lease and it had to revert.
“It is grand that you have had such a welcome to Perranporth and environs. We did enjoy Richard’s book and the talk that he gave in Boulder.”
Like so many Cornish, the Hoskins emigrated to America to seek work in the mines. They had a blacksmith business and the first Perrancombe Hoskin to arrive in Colorado became captain of three gold mines in the Rocky Mountains owned by Belgian investors.

 

08/6/15

Thursday Thought: Synchronicity?

 

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Hoskin Family Tree

 

Our July promotional tour of Cornwall was amazing . . .  in many ways.
Every day there was a new connection, coincidence, synchronicity.

One involved Steve Hoskin, who lives in Boulder with his wife Freda. My daughter Sarah lives in Boulder too, and gave a Nordic pole walking class which Freda attended. They all met up and Steve told of his interest in Cornish genealogy. Were the two Hoskin families related? And then he read The Miner & the Viscount.

First thing Steve discovered was about the name of the Port Eliot steward, Charles Polkinghorne. I had chosen it for one of my characters, I thought, because it was typically Cornish . . . although it did ring a faint bell. And I did see the name on a grave stone in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, when I spoke to the Cornish Society there.

However, when Steve came to my book talk in Boulder in June he reminded me that when he researched my Hoskin ancestry he found that my great aunt Susan Hoskin had married a Polkinghorne!

There’s more to the story. I’ll tell it next time. It’s about Steve’s ancestors, how they came to the Rocky Mountains and their connection with the village of Perrancombe in Cornwall. Synchronicity!