In the graveyard at Godolphin Cross in Cornwall is a gravestone to a young miner who died in 1896 in Silver City Idaho.
Silver City is now a very interesting mining ghost town, cut off most of the year by snow etc. No one lives there full time.
There are other gravestones to other miners who died in other far flung towns such as Morro Vello in Brazil in 1892.
Can anyone point me to literature of a broad sense of how these miners travelled in those times. Mass miner emmigration generally in the 1800's, how could they afford the cost of the passage, how did they know there was work in Silver City etc (its 1000's of miles away from Cornwall in the middle of the Rockies), what routes did the ships take. How would they have moved a body from Idaho back to rural Cornwall in those days? That sort of thing.
Have any books been written about these miner migrations or any research into that period?
Info would be apreciated. Thanks.

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Someone who can give you a comprehensive answer to these quiestions is Cornish Pixie. CP has done a great deal of research and written comprehensively on the subject so here's hoping Sharron pokes her head in.

You could start by reading an article CP wrote in Cornish Studies (no 9), The making of a myth:Cornish Miners in the New World in the early Nineteenth Century Also in the Cornish Studies series:
Payton, P., ‘Cornish Emigration in Response to Changes in the International Copper Market in the 1860s’, Cornish Studies 3, 1995, pp. 60-82.
Payton, P., ‘”Reforming Thirties” and “Hungry Forties”: The Genesis of Cornwall’s Emigration Trade’, Cornish Studies 4, Exeter, 1996, pp. 107-127.

How did they travel. Well they didn't always end up at their original destination. The Wisconsin lead mines was one of the many parts of the US that attracted Cornish migrants (and many from the NE as well) and the Mineral Point Historical Society has the diary (his journey) of John Grundy online that might be of interest. http://www.gundry.com/Diary/John_Gundrys_Diary.htm 

By the time the mining boom in Idaho started the Cornish Miners reputation was well established so they probably were head hunted to some extent. Many of them would already have been in the USA mining elsewhere so it would have been a mini gold rush.

I've no idea why they would have shipped the body back to Cornwall, or how come to that; in fact I find it rather surprising considering the many Cornish cemeteries around the world. Many miners did of course return to Cornwall prior to dying.

a rough guide.

MIGRATION OVER TIME

1816 Richard Trevithick in Peru, 1820's Major mining development in Latin America
1830 Cuba and USA recruit Cornish miners
1840 "The Hungry Forties" potato blight in Ireland & Cornwall
1840-1880 Australia mining development, 1849 California gold rush
1857 Australia, new South Wales gold rush, 1867 Collapse of the Cornish copper
1866-70 Diamonds found in South Africa, 1870-1900 Africa mining development
1871 Gold found in the Transvaal, 1872 Australia tin rush
1877 Silver found in Colorado 1880, India, Mysore gold mines run by Cornish miners
1886 South Africa, Rand gold fields, 1896 Alsaka, the Klondyke gold rush

Hope this helps a little.

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My mum has a ring passed down through generations that was made from rose gold that one of our mining ancestors brought back from either america or africa during the mining migration years. My mum knows where it is from but i cant remember!

Thank you Carnkie, lots of food for thought there. I'll start at the top and work thru all the stuff you have advised. Might take a while!!
Regarding the burial it definately states that he died in Silver City rather than came back to Cornwall and died, so maybe he was embalmed or something but thats probably a whole new subject on its own and you given me loads to get on with without getting too much into 19c body transporting technology at this stage !!..
Thanks

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The presence of a grave does not always imply the presence of a body. I cannot comment with any authority about Cornish miners but I would assume similar conditions to sailors and military deaths abroad. If it is a family grave then the grave stone may just have had the name added as a memorial (unless of course the the words, such as "Here Lies" indicate different). In the grave yards of the west coast of Wales there are a significant number of sailors graves where the deaths occurred at sea all over the world many of these do not contain the actual body just the other family members. Usually the sailors name is first because of his 'premature' death and the bulk of the inscription relates to him with little space left for others.

If the body was returned then there are a few possibilities, I have a memory that one of the military heroes (Nelson maybe) was returned preserved in a barrel of Brandy. Salt would be another possible preserving agent, if returned in a coffin it would have to be metal lined and sealed otherwise the bio-hazard would be considerable with a journey time of months.

Prior to the opening of the Transcontinental railroad (1869) the obvious route would be by sea to California (San Fransisco probably) a very long and risky journey all the way round South America. After 1869 by sea to the East coast (Boston, New York, etc) then rail across the US.

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Digit you probably put your finger right on it there, expect that he actually buried in Idaho and gravestone just commerates him, there are other family members on there as well. It seems such a huge undertaking to move a body that far. Your suggestion much more likely.
If it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck and floats like a duck it is likely to be .... etc

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I forgot to mention, a couple of papers that may be of interest.
http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/cornishlatin/workingpapersandbibliography.htm 

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I'm not sure why I didn't include this in my earlier comments but for a detailed overview on the subject you probably can't better Philip Payton's The Cornish Overseas.

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