The Jigsaw Puzzle Tree | Chapter 1

HOW DO YOU SPELL IT?

“One of my ancestors was hanged at Tyburn”, said my fairly new husband, casually. I laughed.

“What did he do?”

“Led a revolt or something.”

End of conversation. Until, about twelve years later, our son came home from school with a history project. He had been told to write a history of his own life, with proof of each event, and including his immediate ancestors. We ransacked drawers and cupboards long overdue for Spring cleaning. We amassed a large pile of documents – certificates, passports, photographs – mostly from my family, not my husband’s; it seems that it is usually the daughters who inherit memorabilia. How could my son do a project without half the material? The search began.

In those days we knew little about Family History; yet by common sense and instinct we began in the approved way. We asked the relations, particularly Roy’s, most of whom were no longer Angoves. Incidentally we discovered that however many generations back was the Angove connection, many people still regarded themselves as Angoves, and were proud of their ancestry.

We had a mixed reaction to our enquiries; my aunt, whom we approached for Powell stories, told us sternly, “I remember someone coming around asking about the family before. SHE WASN’T EVEN A POWELL – she just married one!”

Roy’s sister told us the Angove family was Cornish. Roy had never been to Cornwall, but for several years as a child I had, with my family, stayed with friends on a Cornish farm at Burras, near Wendron. My whole family loved Cornwall, and I knew the South West quite well. We had explored extensively; we had also been accepted into the farmer’s family and allowed to ‘help’ at various times – I learned to hand-milk a cow, and we stooked the corn at harvest time, looked for eggs from the free-range hens… Cornwall was part of me. I wished my own family had been Cornish.

“Angoves came from Truro”, one of Roy’s brothers told Martin; “They used to have lots of money”. Like most family legends, there was truth in this last statement. However, we discovered that the Angove wealth had all disappeared about 270 years previously. Family memories last a long time!

“Don’t approve of all this digging up the past”, said Martin’s uncle, “You never know what you’ll find, do you?” Of course, that was the exciting part!

Christmas came. Both Roy and I were working with large numbers of people, he in a Training and Work centre for the handicapped and I as a teacher. That Christmas we had nearly one hundred cards. They were addressed variously to Mr and Mrs ANGOUR, ANGRY, ANGOF, ANGROVE, ANGOVER, ENGOVE, ANN GOVE, GOUGH, GOFF, and even HANGOVER (Yes, true)! If in the twentieth century it was so difficult to spell, what happened a hundred years and more ago? Our daughter, many years later, couldn’t wait to change her name to Thomas (by marriage!) – she had become exasperated by having to spell Angove so many times. For Family History purposes, however, an unusual name is a bonus. It was good that so early on we realised that the name would be found in many different forms. We were also able to concentrate on one geographical area, as although Angoves did spread over the world eventually, this was in the recent past.

“Angove”, however spelt, is a Cornish name. It is an occupational surname, ‘An’ being the definite article in Cornish, and ‘Gof’ meaning Smith. The Cornish and Welsh languages are both Celtic and have much in common. ‘Gof’ means blacksmith in Welsh, too. At least we didn’t have to research the English equivalent, Smith!

I believe that there is much more to inheritance than some give credit for. It is, to us, remarkable that the early Angoves were blacksmiths and tin miners; Roy was a printing engineer by trade and smithing was one of his skills. Martin also became an engineer, though his bent is towards electricity and electronics, neither of which were about until recently!

So we began to put together the history of the Angoves, starting with a few family memories, a handful of official and unofficial documents – and a number of variations in spelling.