As you’ll see I know less about the Cornesses than the other families, but Cliff spoke fondly of his mother Annie’s family — or most of them! They’re woven throughout his stories, including his early childhood back in Lancashire, which he writes about in From Westhoughton to Hikurangi.
His Uncle Jack (or John) Corness came to New Zealand in 1923 on the SS Ionic, a year or so before Cliff and his parents. Jack’s wife Nellie and their four kids followed him in late ’23 on the Dorset.
As a kid I thought I knew who Uncle Jack was, but I had it wrong. The man I remembered turned out to be a different Uncle Jack — Uncle Jack’s son Jack.
Cliff reckoned Jack the Elder was an avowed Communist and therefore wrong about everything — and wrong-headed to boot.
One day in the late 1960s or early ’70s I drove Dad to Jack’s place in Auckland for a catch up, but Jack wasn’t home. Although I’ve since spotted Uncle Jack registered as a Hikurangi miner on the 1928 electoral roll, by the late ‘60s he’d have been pushing 70 and retired.
“Who’d want to buy a house in a place like this?” Cliff said, shaking his head as we were about to drive off. “He’s got no idea about property values.” This was in Ponsonby. I want to say it was on Richmond Road but maybe I’m getting that wrong. Anyway, if it’s not true it should be. Dad wasn’t to know.
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The younger Jack Corness was a coal miner like my grandfather — also called Jack, of course — but for some reason he’d moved to Huntly. Better work prospects I suppose, or the Hikurangi mine closing. Although I can’t remember Jack the Elder, I have nothing but the best memories of his son, my Uncle. He was modest, wiry, amiable and with a ready smile. And like all miners no stranger to hard work. We’ve lost touch with them, but I do remember his wife Agnes and daughter Ellen.
Jack’s two brothers, Dennis and Tom, and his sister Winnie, also came to New Zealand in 1923 but as I write I have no idea what’s become of them. I did find photos of the two boys in Dad’s album. But the only one I can find of Jack is that little image of him at his Dad’s feet. Uncle Jack is being Uncle Jack, and there’s that smile I remember on little Jack’s face.
…and then just as I was giving up I found this snippet of Jack and Agnes in another photo. That’s the couple I remember.
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What strikes me now is how adventurous these people were, both the Baughs and the Cornesses — especially given their families’ histories.
Annie Corness, Cliff’s mother, was born in Bolton, North East of Liverpool. Her father Thomas was born in Liverpool and died in Bolton.
When you look at the place names that come up in the family tree they’re strikingly close together, at least by modern standards. Wavertree, Old Swan, West Derby and School Lane are all in Liverpool. Bolton looks to be an hour or so’s drive up the M62. And if you’re to believe Google, from Bolton you could drive through Horwich, Blackrod, Wigan, Hindley and Westhoughton and be back to Bolton in time for lunch provided you didn’t stop on the way.
They were Lancastrians through and through — and yet in the mid-1920s a bunch of them decided to up sticks and head as assisted migrants to the other side of the world.
Once again there was Irish blood in the family. Thomas’s mother, Kate Kelly — Cliff’s Great-Grandmother — was Irish, and Thomas himself married into another Irish family, the Daleys. Thomas’s wife was also, confusingly, call Kate! I’m pretty sure both the Kellys and Daleys had migrated to Lancashire, and if Thomas and Kate the younger didn’t meet in Liverpool they certainly married there. Both families were living in School Lane in the centre of the city at the time.
When they married Thomas Corness signed with his mark, as a labourer. His father John Corness was recorded as a rope maker, Kate (Catherine’s) father Patrick as a labourer.
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For a number of reasons building a family tree for these families is difficult. For starters there’s the practice of using the same first names from generation to generation, which must be the bane of every family story teller. And then records are scarce for working class people. The most reliable sources I’ve found are census documents. Birth records are hard to come by and death records often non-existent.
I haven’t found much available on ancestry.com for either the Baughs or the Cornesses. And names are spelled differently. The Cornesses are also the Corners, Cornes and Cornises etc. The Daleys can be Dalys, Dailys and Dailies. This won’t have been helped by the fact that, like many working class people at the time, they’re unlikely to have been able to read and write. And that’s without mentioning the bad handwriting of the people filling in the old forms, possible inaccuracies when transcribing to ancestry.com and the Latinate versions in Catholic baptism records! I decided to stick with Corness and Daley.
Which is all to say it’s entertaining and a bit obsessive, and I’d certainly like to fill in more gaps.
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My father Cliff wrote about both his mother’s and his father’s families, and what he remembered of his own life as a little boy back in Lancashire. My own recollections of my grandfather John Baugh and my grandmother Annie Corness are here.
If you have feedback, corrections, photos, or can help fill in the gaps on these family pages, please email or let me know in the comments — thanks!
I probably haven’t been consistent, but by and large I’ve called the women by their “maiden” names — e.g. Annie Corness, not Annie Baugh.
I’m a Corness from Liverpool. Guessing we’re related. I appreciate the work you’ve put in.
Hi Liam
Quite possibly. I have noticed a few people reading the Corness pages lately, but have no idea who they are, so it’s particularly good to hear from you, and thank you — Ian
Hello lan my name is Jimmy Corness, Liam’s Dad, son of Jimmy Corness, son of John Jock Corness from Old Swan Liverpool. George Corness who was killed in the first world war was his father
Hi Jimmy, as I’ve said on this page, I don’t know a lot about the Corness family, so thank you for contacting me. I hope you can read the family trees I’ve sent you. I think I can identify the George Corness you mention, but I don’t know anything about the others. If you can tell me more about any of them or the wider family I’d be grateful.
All the best
Ian
Hi Ian
This is my Corness family and we are related. My grandma was Kate Corness, daughter of Kate Daley and Thomas Corness and it was me who gave Conrad, who’s related to gt uncle Jack’s wife Nellie, the photos of my gt uncle Jack 🙂 I only live 10 mins away from Westhoughton. I don’t have many photos unfortunately it looks like my cousin threw most of them away.
Best wishes
Wendy
Hi Wendy, thanks for commenting. I think I’ve managed to track your grandma down in the family tree. Is she the Kate who married Thomas Kay? There are a lot of Cornesses! Ian
Hi Ian, yes that’s right.
I feel I must point out you have a lot of facts wrong and there are people still alive who will be affected by this. My gt grandma Kate Daley was not illiterate and she never worked down a pit as a child, that was illegal for women and girls from the 1842 mining act and she was born in 1871. Her parents and her husbands parents never worked down the pit as children as you surmised, they lived in Liverpool near the docks, Thomas Corness’ family were ropers, as was he until he became a miner in the 1880s in Westhoughton. I hope that helps.
Best wishes, Wendy.
Hello again Wendy. I’m glad you’ve read the Westhoughton to Hikurangi post. I’ve made a couple of edits there following your comments. To be clear, that page is mostly my Dad’s “surmises”, not mine. I did make one mistake, transcribing “in the pit” when he’d written “at the pit”. Maybe he’s wrong there too, but although he was just a little boy when he left the UK, what he’s written would have been based on conversations among the NZ Baughs and Cornesses and the wider Lanc. community in Waro/Hikurangi. Also his own trip “home” in 1969. The Hika Lancs were a close knit bunch even when I knew them. As I’ve written, this is “family lore, not family history”, and by and large I’ve simply passed the stories on as they were left to us. And, as I’ve said above, feedback, corrections and photos are very welcome! Ian
Thanks Ian, I’m afraid he is wrong, there was no mining industry in Liverpool. Best she could have been was a pit brow lass like her daughter Nellie but she wouldn’t have been a child, she was married when she came to Westhoughton. Also, her husband Thomas was not born in Bolton, he was born in West Derby, 1867. They lodged in James St with Thomas’ aunt’s family, the Duffys. Luckily, the house is still there because the others were demolished. There is a lot of information out there and I’ve been able to trace our family back to the 1600s in the Kirkham area, to a place called Cornah Row in Greenhalgh, but I have been researching for over 30 years now. Regarding birth, marriage and death certs, they are available from 1837, everyone had to register although some did slip through the net, and you can order online at the GRO. Pre 1957 you can request a pdf, which will make things easier. I’ve attached a photo of my grandma Kate Corness around the same time as Annie’s photo, she was also baptised a catholic but didn’t marry as one. Nice to hear memories about Jack Corness thanks, he was my grandma’s favourite brother and she did think about moving out there according to a letter I have. Best wishes, Wendy (I’ve also emailed this because of the photo)
You’re a hard task master, and what’s more you’re right! In fact my own research on the Corness page contradicts what my Dad says, and basically agrees with you. Not the first time I’ve disagreed with my father! In fact I already had Thomas’s birth in West Derby in my family tree, but that didn’t have any significance for me until I saw that it places him in Liverpool instead of in/near Manchester. In truth I hadn’t really tried to cross-reference my page to Dad’s, just let him tell his story. When I wrote mine I wasn’t thinking in terms of mining, and the name Bolton in Dad’s never registered as significant. I’ve made a few more edits as a consequence. Thanks again for your interest.