The Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro will be launching this year's countywide Museums and Galleries Month activities with a free family fun day on Saturday May 5 .

The Deasons were a Cornish family who left the county in the 19th century to make their fortune in Australia. Follow that Miner' visitors will discover the family's story and be able to handle real mining artefacts and examine treasures from underground. There will also be storytelling sessions from a real miner, music from a live Cornish choir and an opportunity to trace ancestry with the Cornwall Family History Society.

The launch event will start at 10am and end at 4pm. Admission is free.

To celebrate Cornwall's World Heritage status, Museums and Galleries Month, which runs throughout May, has mining as its central theme. On Saturday 5 May from 1030am to 1130am, former South Crofty miner Mark Kazmarek, will tell stories from the mine at the Helston Folk Museum. The event is free to Kerrier residents with proof of residence and under 8s must be accompanied.

People in Penwith will get the chance to listen to a Miner's Tale' and lots more on Monday 7 May from 10.30 to 4pm at Geevor Tin Mine, Pendeen. Geevor ex-miner, Ian Davey will talk about his underground experiences before the mine closed and visitors will be invited to dress up as Victorian balmaidens, a buddle boy or a miner and will be able to handle the type of tools they would have worked with. To help remember what they look like, they can then work with Geevor's resident artist and create full-size portraits to take home. Visitors will also be able to make and create their own locker identikits' inspired by the miner's lockers in the Dry. These activities are free, but normal admission applies.

On Saturday May 12, Cornwall Records Office in Truro will be holding an open day from 10am to 4pm. As well as being able to go on behind the scenes tours and watch demonstrations, there will be an opportunity to listen to A Miner's Tale as related at Geevor. There is no admission charge but booking is essential and children under 12 must be accompanied.

Helston Folk Museum will be the venue, on the same day - Saturday May 12- for some more storytelling, this time from Angie Butler. Her tales of tin miners will take place from 1030 to 1230. One week later, on Saturday May 19, there will be a chance to work with artist Eleanor Newell at the Folk Museum using charcoal, ink and wax to create pictures of life underground. Booking for that event is essential and entry is free to Kerrier residents.

On Wednesday May 16 Roger Radcliffe will give a talk about Wheal Kitty past and present at 7.30pm in St Agnes Methodist Church Hall and, on Saturday May 26 from 1030 to 1230, visitors can meet a nineteenth century miner and balmaiden at Helston Folk Museum and discover what their lives were like.

During half term, the Royal Cornwall Museum will again be hosting a Follow that Miner treasure hunt every day from Tuesday 29 May to Saturday 2 June and on Wednesday May 30. Dr Joanna Henley will entertain families with a creative journey into Cornwall's mining past using storytelling, creative writing and illustration. Admission costs £3 per child and booking is essential.

Finally there will be another chance to listen to Ian Davey's Miner's Tale and to work with local artist Eleanor Newell on Wednesday 30 May at Penlee House Gallery and Museum in Penzance from 10am to 5pm. Admission is free but booking is essential.