Who's Who Among Cornish Family Descendents

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From: N Simon Faithfull
To: Jack Fei
Sent: 12/7/2009
Subj: Greetings, Cousin!

Hi Jack,

You will have heard that I spoke to Linda this afternoon, and established that I am your second cousin once removed!

My side of the family has been speculating about how we could get in contact with your side for some time - and now the key has been found! A cousin of mine’s daughter (Alison Bailey, your 3rd Cousin), who speaks Mandarin, found your father’s obituary in Mandarin, and passed on details to me. Your brother’s name was given to me as Carl, living in Walnut Creek. Of course I couldn’t find him – there is a Carl Fei in Orlando, but that’s a long way from Walnut Creek! On further searching I found Calvin’s correct name on an English language obituary, and this also yielded your name and Albert’s name. I found a phone number for you on LinkedIn, dialed it and got Linda on the line!

I am a retired MD/Pharmaceutical Executive (I am 69 years old), and though brought up in the UK, I have spent most of my life in other countries. I have been here in San Diego for 20 years. Your father was my second cousin, so that makes you my second cousin once removed. To make it easier, my grandmother was the sister of NE Cornish, your great grandfather.

My grandmother had 3 children, Nell, Ted and Nick (my father).

Nell had 2 daughters, Beryl and Jean (my cousins); Beryl had 2 daughters and a son – one of her daughters is Alison Bailey, who speaks Mandarin and works in the Center for Chinese Research in the University of British Columbia in Vancouver; Jean had a son and a daughter and her daughter, (Janet Greenwell), is the member of the family who has done the most research on the Cornishes.

Ted adopted two boys (Edward and Nick), who, though members of the family, are not genetically related to us.

My father had one son (me!) and a daughter (my sister Jane). I have 4 daughters, one in Bahrain (one son) and one in Edinburgh (4 sons and 1 daughter!). Jane and her two sons and 3 grandchildren all live in South Africa; Jane and one son live in Capetown, and the other son in Johannesburg.

Phew! I hope some of that makes sense?! No doubt you will pass this along to your brothers, and I hope that some day we can all meet up.

I am attaching a photo of my sister and I, taken last year in Capetown.

All the very best,

Simon
Dr N Simon Faithfull MD, PhD

Nicholas Cornish (1832) & Anne Frost (1837) family genealogy

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On 13-Dec-09, at 11:40 AM, Simon Faithfull wrote:

Hi Al,

Thank you for copying me on the family tree - it really is amazing what you can find on the internet these days! I am copying this email to Alison Bailey, Nell's grand-daughter (Beryl's daughter), and the Mandarin speaker who first found details of your father's obituary; I am also copying Janet Greenwell, also Nell's grand-daughter (Jean's daughter), who is the one in the family (I think!) who has the most info on the Cornishes. (by the way, Alison, the Yahoo Email address that I am using is the best one to reach me).

I remember NE, as he was always known in the family, and I went to his 90th birthday party in 1948 - he was always my father's favorite uncle, and somewhere in the UK I think I have a good photo of him (NE, I mean not my father!). I also have a Cornish family tree, going back I think to the 1600's - again in my cottage in the UK. NE was at the time of his 90th birthday (in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire), being looked after by my aunt Lyle (Ted's wife).

The family tree document is not quite correct as it shows Annie Cornish, who was my grandfather Edward Wilson Faithfull's second wife, as NE's sister. In fact she was his daughter, though, as she died in the mid 1960's, I don't think she could have been born in 1864 ( maybe NE has a sister called Annie as well?) - maybe Alison or Janet have more insight on this. As you can see from this my grandfather married his niece (by marriage)!

Just before his death, NE had (?only) told Lyle of his Chinese children; Just before her death she told her adopted son, Edward - he shortly afterwards told the rest of us. So we didn't know of your existence until about the mid 80's. Anyway, I am very glad we have met up, albeit only electronically so far!

All the best, cousins all!

Simon

From: Alison Bailey
To: Jack Fei
Sent: 12/10/2009

Dear Jack (if I may),

My mother's cousin Simon Faithfull gave me your address. I'm writing to say how pleased I am to have discovered new (or long lost) family members. We always knew in family lore that (great-) great-uncle Nicholas Edward (N.E.) Cornish had a family in China, but no-one knew how to contact them or even if it was possible.

I studied Chinese language & literature at London University, lived in Beijing for nearly 4 years (1979-82) & then did a MA & PhD in Chinese literature. I've taught at universities in the UK, the US & Canada & now run a Centre for Chinese Research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

My maternal grandmother looked after an elderly relative "Auntie Annie" who I think was N.E's daughter by an earlier marriage & I used to visit her house when young. There were several Chinese objects there & I think that was one of the reasons I was drawn to studying Chinese. My grandmother told me a bit about N.E. when I started studying Chinese but I didn't really take much notice until it was too late (too occupied with life / being young etc).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we had a professor from Cambridge give a talk at my centre the other day on the Maritime Customs in China 1850s- WW2 & he reminded me of how full archives & record-keeping was for that era so I thought I'd try Googling Uncle N.E. & there he was! Magic! And there, even more importantly, were the names of his daughter Elizabeth Tse-Vong Cornish, his wife Ling-ling Tai & his grandson, John Fei - your father (whom I regret never having had the chance to meet). I'd always been worried that N.E. had somehow abandoned his family & that they had suffered greatly for being half-Chinese in times of political campaigns on the mainland, but it seems as if things weren't quite as bad as I'd feared (although the fact that we didn't know how to find you is a sad indication of people's attitudes).

I think N.E. left China in 1925 / 6. By that time Elizabeth had been to Oberlin & married your grandfather & returned to China. It would be wonderful to know more about your family's side of the story if you have the time & interest in writing or talking about it. I know Simon has already contacted you & given you lots of background so maybe you feel a little overwhelmed by enthusiastic new relatives, but if not, I'd love to hear more about you all.

My mother, who is 81, remembers her great-uncle N.E. very clearly from when she was about 3 or 4. She says he was a very sprightly gentleman & rather old-fashioned for the time, wearing spats. He must have been in his late 70s or so by then.

With all best wishes,
Alison

From: Jack Fei
To: Alison Bailey
Sent: Dec 10, 2009

I hardly know where to begin in explaining the Fei Family decendents from a Mr. Cornish. When I was a child, my father said to me that if I ever went to England and met any man named "Cornish", I should punch him in the nose for abandoning your grandmother. When I talked to my grandmother Elizabeth (Cornish) Fei about my father's counsel, she became incensed and protested "Mr Cornish was very kind to me and took good care of me". Alas neither is here with us to give their version of the story.

To give you a high level outline: Elizabeth (Cornish) and Jack (my grandfather) Fei had seven children - four daughters and three sons. All emigrated to the United States and three of the daughters are sitll alive. My father John Fei, had three sons, Albert, Calvin, and myself. I am 60, married and have a daughter Elizabeth Fei, named after her great-grandmother who was Nicholas Cornish's daughter. She just graduated from college and is working at Yinghua Academy, a Chinese Language Immersion School.

The best source of information about the Fei Family is found in a book written by one of the daughters, Chi-Yun Fei. My brother Albert Fei, prepared a PDF version of the book, "A Life Once Lived in Peking" originally published in Danish, that I am forwarding to you. Her husband, Karl Eskelund, was a well known author and he wrote a book about travels in Red China in 1957 in which he describes his visit to the Fei home. Recently I have written a Wikipedia article about him and here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Qz7cbz/Karl_Johannes_Eskelund

Also I am forwarding to you a picture taken in Peking of my granpatents grave sites. Hope you find these interesting and informative. There is more.

Keep in touch,

Jack Fei

From: Alison Bailey
To: Jack Fei
Sent: 12/11/2009

Dear Jack,

Thank you! This is all so interesting. I just skim-read Chi-yun's book & found it fascinating. It's so strange to think that I know many of the places she mentions in Beijing. I wish I had met her! I can understand why your father told you to punch anyone named Cornish - but I suppose his behaviour was fairly typical for the time (unfortunately). He seems to have been very fond of women... And yet he seems to have supported your grandmother. (Do you know anything about Lingling Tai?) I'm going to send this on to my mum to read - she would be very interested to know all this. She visited me for a few weeks when I was working in Beijing in 1980.

My cousin Janet, in England, is like my mum's cousin Simon - fascinated with family history. She & Simon both do research on genealogy - but to be frank I'm much more interested in my Chinese connections because I've been studying Chinese & Chinese culture since I was 17 (I'm 54 now). I'm married to a Vancouverite, Andy, an architect, (his family comes from Greece) & we have a 15 year old daughter named Sophia (her second name is Laura, like my sister & my dear friend Hua Laura Wu (from Beijing), but it is also a Cornish family name.)

Perhaps one day we can have a family reunion & try to avoid punching each other!

With best wishes & many thanks,

Alison

From: Alison Bailey
Sent: Dec 13, 2009 7:24 PM
To: Simon Faithfull
Cc: Al Fei, Jack Fei , Janet Greenwell , Alison Bailey
Subject: Re: Greetings, Cousin!

Dear Al, Jack, Janet & Simon,

Thank you for the enormous family tree - I notice a few gaps & have no idea who most of these people are or were - but it's still fun to try & trace who's who. (I can't see any sign of our most famous cousin Marianne Faithfull (!) there...) Janet told me NE had a first wife Annie Nicholson & another Annie (Cornish) was their daughter (& my great-grand step-mother & second cousin). Convoluted, to say the least (& NE seems to have quite the ladies' man).

I have now read Chi-yun's (Mary's) memoir of life in Peking - thank you Al for the beautiful work on it! It is really charming & evocative - she has a wonderful voice & ability to see clearly (with humour & sensitivity). I'm sure you've thought of this, but it would be great if you could have the English version published. I'm of course not sure what the copyright issues might be or what Mei-mei (Chi-yun's daughter?) might feel about it, but I think there would be great interest. Perhaps it could be filled out a bit more with extracts from Eskelund's books (translated via Google??) & perhaps a chapter on NE's goings-on at the Kiangnan Arsenal & elsewhere (I've just been reading a bit about the Arsenal in conjunction with a conference paper I'm writing) - it was a fascinating institution - a place where many of China's reformers & revolutionaries were educated & also attacked several times during the 1911 revolution. I think Uncle NE was given some kind of official status by the Empress Dowager for his work in suppressing the Boxers in 1900 (which must have made him popular with some & hated by others). I feel the Fei family's history & experiences in the US, Denmark & China should be included too - a truly transnational family. You could weave a variety of voices & stories together to make a great read. I know people in publishing who might be able to offer suggestions if you're interested in going further.

Also, I'm not sure what happened to the Fei house in Beijing after 1949 but Dengshikou is prime real estate right in the centre of town. (When I worked for Women of China Magazine in Beijing in the early '80s my bosses, the All-China Women's Federation, had their offices on Dengshikou which I remember very well but they have now built a massive & ugly building on Chang'an Avenue close by). I know of several people whose houses were confiscated after 1949 who have been able to negotiate compensation or even get their house back - a long, complicated & probably frustrating process but... It's possible your grandparents didn't own the house or sold it prior to 1949 so nothing could be done anyway. When next I visit Beijing I'll make sure to go look out for the site of the house because Chi-yun described life there so vividly.

I hope we'll all meet up one of these days. Vancouver's a great place to visit so perhaps some of you will find your way out here sooner or later.

With all best wishes,

Alison

From: Janet Greenwell
To: Simon Faithfull; Alison Bailey; Al Fei, Jack Fei, Gray Chang
Sent: 12/15/2009

Dear Cousins of various degrees!

Thought I'd better join in and introduce myself to my new cousins. I am the Janet Simon and Alison have mentioned.

Wow! What a lot has happened in a few days and a lot of information exchanged.

That large family tree down from John Clewer is amazing but I would treat it with caution.

Our link in it is that Edward Faithfull married Laura Cornish (sister of NE) and one of Edward's sisters, Ada, married William Cluer(spelling changed by then).

Some of our side seems to have come from a Faithfull family tree put together by a Brian Faithfull in Australia which contained some mistakes and these same mistakes have appeared in this tree.

Al has mentioned Sue Taylor and Bruce and Barbara Tunley.We are all related. I have exchanged emails with Sue who has been in touch with the Tunleys. Bruce Tunley is the grandson of Mary Eliza Cornish (one of NEs sisters) and Sue is a great granddaughter of Annie Cornish (another of NEs sisters. Annie was a popular name for Cornishes!)

In the Ebay request you were asking for any documents or letters about NE. Between us we have lots. As Simon has mentioned he has the Cornish family Bible which has entries from the 18th Century. I believe his cousin Edward Faithfull has NEs passport and my mother has several letters and certificates. It's up to you how much you want to know and the best way to get the information to you!

Best wishes and happy researching to everyone!

Janet

From: Gray Chang
To: Janet Greenwell, Simon Faithfull, Alison Bailey, Al Fei, Jack Fei
Sent: 12/16/2009

Dear Janet and other NE Cornish relatives,

I am Gray Chang, a first cousin of Al Fei. I'm the one who placed a request for information about Nicholas Edward Cornish on eBay. Thank you for letting me know that you have some documents relating to my great-grandfather. I would be interested in seeing his passport, so I can learn about his travels to China, and any correspondence regarding his Chinese relatives. If the respective owners could scan any such documents and email them to me or post them on the Internet, that would be great. Also, having the family bible available on the Internet would be a great resource for us amateur genealogists. But don't go to a lot of trouble or expense. I'm already quite satisfied with the wealth of information that Al and I have found recently on the Internet.

Here is a brief overview the Chinese descendents of NE Cornish (b. 1858). He had a daughter, Elizabeth Cornish (1890-1986), who was my grandmother. My grandmother had no memory of her birth mother, who died at a very young age. NE Cornish also had a son, John Smith, born some years later, with a different Chinese wife. I don't know the reason the son was given the name Smith instead of Cornish.

Elizabeth Cornish married Hsing-Jun Fei in 1914, and they had seven children, as explained in my aunt's book. (Ask me or Al for a PDF copy if you haven't seen it.) To make a long story short, these seven children had about three children per family, who in turn had children, etc., resulting in dozens of descendents, most of whom now live in the US.

John Smith, my grandmother's half-brother, had three children: Joe Smith, who lives in Australia, Winnie Smith (not sure of what happened to her), and Gracie Smith, who married a Frenchman, moved to France, and has many French descendents. I'm not very familiar with the Smith family branch, but I could find out.

It has certainly been interesting to learn about my great-grandfather! Until last summer, I knew absolutely nothing about him other than his surname "Cornish".

-- Gray

From: Bruce Tunley
To: Sue Taylor; Al Fei
CC: all

Hello Sue and all the other cousins.

I have attached a detailed Cornish pedigree that Barbara my wife had been working on for 25 years.

Unfortunately Barbara died on 27 March 2008, but I am sure she would have liked all of you to have this research.

She was very particular and always liked to get everything exact (but as you all know this is an impossibility in genealogy). But if any of you would like to take up the challenge to add/correct the attachment that would be great.

Thank you Sue for all the work you did. And also Roger Cornish who was one of our first contacts.

I have lots more information if anyone is interested.

Mary Eliza Cornish (b 1865) was my grandmother. I remember her well.

Regards
Bruce Nicholas Tunley

From: Sue Taylor
To: Al Fei
CC: all
Sent: 12/16/2009

Hello cousins - all of you,

What a surprise to discover there is a whole clan of Cornish cousins busily researching our ancestors. As Al mentioned Barbara and Bruce Tunley and I have communicated before, didn't realise it was nearly 10 years. I've also been carrying out further research regarding Nicholas Cornish (b:1833), his son Nicholas Edward Cornish (b:1857) and his daughter (my great grandmother) Annie Cornish (b:1863) who married (my great grandfather) Harry Goddard.

According to the Cornish Family Tree, sent to me by Rev. Roger Cornish some years ago, the father of Nicholas Cornish (b:1833) was not known.

Roger suggested Nicholas Cornish (bc:1786, St Pauls Exeter) may have been the father of Nicholas Cornish (b:1833) - although their relationship was listed as uncle/nephew, on the 1851 census, Nicholas snr left his estate to his son Nicholas Cornish in his will. Does anyone have further information on this matter?

Is Nicholas Cornish (b:1833) the common denominator between us or are there different links? Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Sue, Shropshire, UK

To: Alison Bailey
From: Gray Chang
Sent: 12/16/2009

Dear Alison,

You worked for the Women in China magazine. Did you know my aunt, Xiao Mei [Zhu Yiyun], who also worked for the magazine? Her husband, Zhang GuoXia (also known as Kuo Hsia Chang) is my father's brother (the non-Cornish side).

-- Gray

Dear Gray,

I can't believe it!! That's extraordinary. What a terrible shame we never knew we were related (albeit indirectly). Please give my very best regards to your uncle - I remember him very well & felt badly about losing touch. ... Zhu Yiyun was one of the first people I knew in China & we worked closely together for nearly three years in the same office. Zhu Yiyun & another colleague went to London & visited my mum there - & my mum & her friend. Sue had met her when they came out to Beijing in 1980 to see me. I think we have a photo of us all eating Mongolian hotpot in Beijing.

Talk about 7 degrees of separation! It is surely less than that! I'm so amazed!

With all best wishes,
Alison

From: Alison Bailey
To: Sue Taylor
CC: all
Sent: 12/17/2009

Dear All,

My mum - Beryl Bailey, nee Jones, daughter of Nell Faithfull who was both the daughter of Laura Cornish, (sister of NE Cornish) & the step-daughter of NE's daughter Annie - phoned me this morning from London to tell me she remembers being taken when a small child by her mother to see a Mr Goddard, a relative & a huntsman, at a hunt meet, possibly in Herefordshire. He was on a horse, with his hounds around him, & looked very impressive. She also remembers seeing her great-uncle NE - elderly & wearing spats. My sister Laura - named after Laura Cornish - has a sampler made by LC in 1882 & we can send you a photo if you're interested.

Mum has been following the email exchanges. I've sent her the Chi-yun Eskelund memoir & she'll be reading it soon.

Best wishes,

Alison

From: Simon Faithfull
To: Sue Taylor
CC: all
Sent: 12/17/2009

Hi Sue!

My goodness, what a flurry of cousins have appeared since, following Alison's tip, I first found Jack Fei only 10 days ago! I think you must be my second cousin once removed - Laura, Annie's and NE's sister, was my grandmother, though I never knew her - she died of appendicitis in the early 1930's and is buried in Tenbury Wells. I went to Annie's funeral with my father, Nick, and that is really the only time I have been in contact with the Cornishes. There is however a daughter of Nick Cornish, Joyce (my second cousin) that I last met in the late 1980's, and who was married to a Dr J Clandillon, a GP from Macclesfield. I am not sure who was the father of Nick Cornish - but Janet would probably know.

I see that you have put "Shropshire" at the bottom of your Email. I was brought up in Shropshire! Where are you from? Though I live in California, I still have a cottage near Leebotwood. We must try and have a beer or something next time I am over.

All the best,

Simon
Dr N Simon Faithfull MD, PhD

From: Al Fei
To: Bruce Tunley
CC: all
Sent: 12/18/2009

Bruce,

I'm sorry to learn that Barbara is not with us to be part of this rediscovery of Cornish cousins and family remembrances. Her attention to detail on the pedigree is clearly evident and her dedication and effort must have been a true labor of love.

I've just started examining the document and there is so much information to consider and digest. Once again, I am amazed by the wealth of detail suddenly made available. Just yesterday, I was content that perhaps, connections to NE, Walter William, Annie, Mary Eliza, John Henry, and Laura, were about all we could hope to collectively piece together. But here today, for the first time, we are also seeing coverage of Joseph, Alice, Lucy, Nellie, and baby Bessie Elisa too.

Thank you so much for sharing Barbara's work with us. It will be a fun and exciting journey for us all, as it has been so far, to see where this all leads to!

Al
New York, NY

To: Gray Chang
From: Janet Greenwell
Sent: 4/18/2010

Dear Gray,

I have spent the morning with my parents going over the emails and links again. Over the last few days I've had time to study them more closely and print off anything relevant. They are very excited about your new website and a picture of your mother Rose (which I got from the dedication page of your other website) who is my Mum's second cousin and as my Mum said it's a pity her mother wasn't still alive to see all this. My grandmother was also very keen on family history and I have a few notes and letters of hers but we now have so many more sources with the WWW.

What struck us was that in 1972 when Chi-Yun Fei Eskelund wrote her story your side of the family obviously knew about NE having an English wife and daughter. Mum commented on the phrase 'nursed by an English daughter' and said that his daughter Annie, had very little to do with him (although they lived in the same town of Tenbury Wells) and he lived in a bungalow next to his nephew and niece-in-law who then looked after him. My grandmother apparently loved NE but didn't like his second wife Florrie and also didn't really get on with Annie who was her cousin but also her stepmother. I don't think she made this too obvious to them but Mum said she would often mutter about them at home! NE loved to play bridge with Ted and Lyle (nephew and niece) and Mum thinks that their house may have been payed for by NE but has no proof of this.

I now intend to check what I've sent everyone and start scanning some more letters. I have one somewhere from NE to my grandmother expressing his thoughts on genealogy which are very interesting!

Enough from me for now....my son is after the computer!

Janet

From: Alison Bailey
To: Cousins
Sent: 5/27/2010

Dear Cousins,
I gave a talk at the BC China Scholars' Forum (which I'd organized) this spring on NE & family & if interested you can find it in the youtube video under the Global Travellers, Visual Connections title. ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvmb01wyEFs&feature=channel

Alison

Letter from Simon Faithfull (Laura Cornish descendent) to Madeleine Bourgery (NE Cornish descendent), May 2011