My Cornish Immigrant Ancestors
My immigrant ancestors are James and Joanna (Laity) Eade. Joanna Laity was born 17 Oct 1819 in St. Hilary, not far from Penzance. She was the eldest child of Ralph and Mary Buckett. She was one of nine. Of her five brothers, four emigrated to Austrailia. She married James Eade in 1844. After six years of marriage, leaving Penzance on the Montaineer, they came to the United States with their two young sons, James and John. After arriving they had two more children, George and my great-grandmother, Mary, was born to them in 1857 in Hazel Green, Wisconsin.
Joanna died on 9 November 1863 at the age of 44 in Hazel Green Wisconsin and is buried nearby at the Providence Cemetery in Benton, Wisconsin. Her son George lies next to her. He died at the age of 26.
James remarried in 1867 to Rebeckah Stanton (who was born in Gwennap, Cornwall). James worked as a farmer and veterinarian. James and Rebeckah died within two months of each other in 1899. James is buried in Muscatine, Iowa, and Rebeckah in Platteville, Wisconsin.
Questions for further research:
· Why did they choose to live in Southwestern Wisconsin? (Definitely Cornish connections - They lived within 30 miles of Mineral Point, Wisconsin). What motivated them to make the huge change? Whom did they already know in southwestern Wisconsin?
· It seemed that James and his second wife still lived in that area, but James is buried in Iowa. Why, when he died so closely to the date of his wife's death, is he buried in Iowa and she in Wisconsin.
Not sure if you have easy access to that book, but from what I've been able to read about it, it deals with Cornish miners "from Wisconsin to California." I'm interested in Cornish miners who settled in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and am wondering if those states are covered at all in the book. Thanks for your comment!