Hi Jan - Re the surname of Rickard, and it's possible origin. This is from the St. Austell website; I wrote it based on Canon Hammond's book; he's the one who specified the surnames mentioned below. In 1580, Queen Elizabeth brought German miners to the area to work deep veins in the copper mines; according to Canon Hammond, local family names of Bowman, Ham, Hart, Hore, Keast, Kessell, Lobb, Sleeman, Starke, and Waldron all stem from these settlers. During the Stuart period, many more mines were opened, including Wheal Fatwork, Virtue, Bold-venture, Wet and Weary, and Heartsease. George I brought further German miners into the parish as the mines deepened, since the Germans had experience with hard rock and deep mining. It was thought their expertise was needed, especially for Polgooth mine, which was given a new lease on life. In it's heyday, more than 1,200 miners worked at Polgooth, and it had 26 shafts working concurrently. My oldest family name is SYMONS; we have reliable data back to 1500 on "my" group. There have been other, older, mentions of the name, I believe. However, I was given to understand that it's NOT considered a "Cornish" name - at some time, a Symons emigrated to Cornwall. So longevity of the name in Cornwall isn't pertinent! We're not technically Cornish, and that's that. Be that as it may, we're still Cornish; the Symons married other folks with Tre, Pen, and Pol surnames, the tricky devils. If you can locate a RICKARD[S] before 1580 living in Cornwall, you might be able to counter the other lady's claims. But your family name might be like the Symons - definitely not Cornish at its root. Cheers, Julia Symons Mosman