| Cudmore Family Reunion, 4th November, 2000
[Back to home page] | |
|
THE CUDMORE CHRONICLE Book Launch a success The country town of Quirindi, NSW, yesterday saw the arrival of nearly 100 'Cudmore visitors' from Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. The Book Launch and Reunion was for many the first contact with 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins and various other branches of the family. The event, including BBQ lunch and dinner, was organised by the Quirindi branch of the Cudmore family to celebrate the publication by NSW researcher and writer Elsie Ritchie: For the Love of the Land - The History of the Cudmore Family. Jim Cudmore welcomed everyone to the Quirindi Rugby Club: "We are thrilled to see so many of you, and I do feel that a lot of you have made a great effort to come to this reunion - it has been something that has been talked about for a long time and this launching of the book has made it possible." |
He read out a list of apologies and thanked those who had phoned from London, New Zealand, Perth and Hobart. The Dymphna Cudmore (Yeates) branch also sent their best wishes by fax.
Jim said that although many people contributed to the book, there were two main people that he would like to thank, the first being his wife Helen Cudmore, the instigator of the project. Helen was worried that in time the history and records could be lost to future generations. "She persisted, where others had given up. It was Helen who approached Elsie and that was how it came to start and that's the reason we're here today." The author Elsie Ritchie, he said, "contributed terrifically". Elsie took on the project, and she "has beavered away all this time and has produced what I think is a very good book." |
| Elsie thanked everyone she had "stirred up" to help, especially the Quirindi cousins. Getting hold of the different Cudmores had taken time but she found a very able helper in Marie Neville (Cudmore) who had lots of information about the Cudmores from Griffith, and she appreciated the efforts of Denise and Graeme Fairbrother who helped persuade Peter Alvin Cudmore's widow, Valerie Cudmore in Melbourne to make her husband's research available for the book. The "5000 sheets of (photocopied) paper [letters, typed newspaper extracts, and early drafts of proposed chapters] arrived just in time for Christmas".
"We owe Peter Cudmore a vote of thanks." Peter did a huge amount of research, encouraged by his cousin John Cudmore, who had been left a trunk of family papers and photographs. |
What really excited Elsie was to find that within Peter's papers was all the information she needed to trace the Cudmore ancestry back to Devon, and to link the Griffith and the South Australian Cudmores. "Peter had a wealth of information, including 30 years of extracts from the Limerick Chronicle, and letters from cousins in England." Elsie mentioned that Valerie was sorry she couldn't come but Peter and Valerie's son Richard and his wife were due to give birth to their first child.
Elsie concluded: "I had a great time, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly and I'm going to miss it terribly. But I've had a bit of luck, there's a Devon Cudmore, Nigel Evans, who's interested in sorting out the Devon stuff and he keeps saying it's not finished yet. Well I'm very glad it's not." Nigel hopes to work on the connection which was lost in the 17th Century. |
| Jim invited Robert Niall, a keen family historian, to comment on the project. Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore had married Robert's great-great-great aunt and Robert joked about the Irish-English connection.
Robert praised Elsie's book but pointed out that it is inevitable that such a book would contain errors - for example in captions or the Family Tree. "If you do spot any, please let Elsie or me know no matter how small they might appear as this is probably the last chance we get to correct the record." "This book didn't arise out of a vacuum - it took a lot of work by a lot of people, some here today, some elsewhere in Australia today, and from a lot of people in the past. |
The earliest document that we've uncovered with Cudmores seeking information about their past in Ireland was dated 1899. Today I can say that that research has spanned three centuries and has built bit by bit.
I am reminded by a comment attributed to Sir Isaac Newton. In an unusually modest moment he said: "If I can see further than those who went before me it's because I stand on their shoulders." And that's certainly the case with this work, and hopefully it will continue that way. Robert explained that in his reading of Peter's documents, three things were evident: |
| space | |
| "One, is that in the early pioneering days at least there was a very strong sense of family; you didn't employ a stranger if you had a family member who could do the job even remotely well. They were in constant contact with each other from Far North Queensland, to Adelaide, to NSW. All the time letters travelling backwards and forwards. We've got much better communications these days but I don't think we do it quite as well as they did. Certainly they didn't have other means to turn to but they were very very family focussed and I would like to think that this gathering here today shows that that spirit isn't entirely dead and long may it continue.
"The second thing that is evident from reading those papers was that Australia has been good to the Cudmores. Certainly they didn't get it on a plate; they had to have vision in abundance, they had to have hard work in abundance but they all made the most of their opportunities. |
"The third thing that comes from those papers as a general statement is that in return the Cudmores have been very good to Australia. They have made significant contributions in agriculture, industry, sporting, social, cultural areas: they have all contributed and contributed at the highest level.
"The only thing we haven't been able to discover", he stated, "is a federal politican and a major crime figure!"
Robert concluded by proposing the health of the Cudmores and invited everyone present to drink a toast to "Ireland, Australia and the greater Cudmore family". |
| The formal side of the day ended with two presentations: Marie Neville presented Elsie with an award from Ray and Cathy Cudmore from Washington - a certificate which declared Elsie to be "an honorary member of the Cudmore family due to her extensive knowledge of our heroes and black sheep". And Des Cudmore from Griffith presented copies of A History of the Rice Industry to James and Helen Cudmore and to Elsie Ritchie. "It's a bit smaller than the book you've produced." "Yes" agreed Elsie, "It hasn't got a Family Tree in the back!" |
Jim warmly invited those visitors interested in seeing more of Quirindi to come out and visit the Cudmore properties.
|
| [Back to home page] | |