History

On purchasing a computer readout of the Angwin name at a market stall in Blackpool UK it told me that the name Angwin has 2 origins.

1 From French Ancestory arriving into the UK with the Normans and settling at Oxford

2 From Cornwall UK where it was initially a nickname in the spirit of all original names i.e a blacksmith became Smith, someone with white hair or pale complexion in Cornish became Angwin.

Without doubt I am from the second category and most of the Angwins I have come accross are from the same origins and usually from West Cornwall..For the Cornish amongst you I apologise for stating the obvious. Cornwall was one of the earliest regions in the UK to have a large industrial base of Copper and Tin mining, but unfortunately many of these mines were closed when they became unprofitable and so many of the people were forced to look elsewhere for employment travelling to other countries (including England!) throughout the world to make new lives.There are many mining communities in the US with strong Cornish connections & in a certain Australian community there is a St.Just Day celebrated.There were different waves of people emigrating from the early 19th Century onwards.

My family and I have been contacted by a lot by people over the years (including through this site) and with their help the earliest Cornish Angwin in our family tree is a Henry Angwin born in 1489 and from that tree there are connections to the USA and Australia.

Over the last 20 years with the development of the internet, there has been a huge increase in the number of people searching their family trees. The Angwin family tree has been researched by a number of people around the world, but one person in particular should be credited for his research. Ben Angwin (Major) formerly of Caister in Norfolk, spent many years in the 1960s researching records in Cornwall and writing to numerous Angwins around the world. I have been contacted by Angwins from Australia and America that have had contact with him and it is his research that we quote here and is the basis of the angwin family tree as we know it.

The picture is of Cape Cornwall (near St. Just) and the chimney stack on the top of it is typical of the mine chimneys that are found throughout Cornwall although they usually have Engine Houses attached.