Family reunions seem to be the talk of the town at present. Well, on social media anyway. And why wouldn’t they be, with A.J. Jacobs’ Global Family Reunion which was held this weekend, proving to be a huge hit.

So on the topic of reunions, I wanted to share with you, one of my family’s family reunions.

This one was held in December 1938 at “Sulby Glen”(the Kelly family homestead) at the tiny town of Cudlee Creek in the Adelaide Hills. This date marked not only 100 years since the arrival of William Kelly and his second wife Jane (nee Caley) to South Australia, pioneers to South Australia from the Isle of Man, but also 50 years since the death of William.

My connection to this family, other than the fact that they settled at Cudlee Creek, which is where I grew up, is that William is my 4x great grandfather.

Various newspaper articles tell the story of the Kelly reunion, but I’ve chosen just two to share with you.

This first one was before the event …

The Advertiser, 3 December 1838, p. 21 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36597696

And this second one was afterwards. It is a long article, and what I’ve shown below is only about 1/3rd of it. To see the full article, click on the link in the caption.

this article appeared in The Advertiser, 2 January 1939
you can read the full article on Trove at:
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49786271

Relatives came from around Australia to attend this event. The newspaper says that this type of reunion was unique for not only South Australia, but with very few of this kind of reunion held throughout the Commonwealth.

Approximately 300 people attended the Kelly family reunion, and we know who at least 277 of them were, thanks to an autograph book which was signed by those who attended this reunion … and has SURVIVED! Below are a few pages from this treasure.

And if having newspaper articles telling us about the reunion, as well as the autograph book was’t awesome enough, there is actually a group photograph from the Kelly 1938 reunion!! Yes truly!

Kelly reunion group photo taken at “Sulby Glen”, Cudlee Creek, 31 December 1938
(click for a larger image)

If anyone has connections to the Kelly’s from Isle of Man, there are several books relating to this family available. You can find these at Gould Genealogy.

Have you been to any family reunions? If so, do you have any momentoes from them?

One hundred years ago today, my grandpa, Cecil Gould Hannaford was born.

As he’s no longer with us to celebrate this milestone, I’ve decided to write down some of the memories I have of him. ‘Cec’ was the oldest of three children born to Ralph and Dorothy Hannaford (nee McCullough), and while he was born at Naracoorte, the family spent most of their life at Cudlee Creek in the Adelaide Hills.

I was a regular visitor to my grandparents place at Cudlee Creek, and probably spent at least half of my early childhood racing around their house, playing in the orchard, riding on the tractor, and generally just getting muddy,  which by the way, I did totally master (see the pic at the bottom)!!!

For anyone who has taken a drive up to the Adelaide Hills there is a good chance that sometime or another you’ve driven along the Gorge Road and ended up either at, or driving through the tiny town of Cudlee Creek. Now you’d know that Gorge Road is long, it’s windy, it is steep, and it has a lot of big rock cliffs.

Next time you travel that road, here’s something to keep in mind …. IT WAS MADE BY HAND. That’s right! Not a machine in sight! It is simply the work of lots of men with picks, shovels and trolleys! And below are the pics to prove it.