A Complex Family Tree

The observant amongst you might have noticed John Travers Tindal's middle name and wondered where that came from so I thought I should give a brief explanation of my family tree.

I am Laurence Crispin Elder Travers. My father is Laurence John Travers who married my mother, Ailsa Berrie Elder. (As I go on, you will also notice that our family has often followed the Scottish tradition of using a mother's maiden name as a middle name.)

Dad's father was Laurence Erskine Travers. He grew up in Metung in the Gippsland and he married Phyllis Theodosia Grant Tindal. They were both living in England when they met. Laurence Erskine Travers father was Laurence John Travers (and his mother Blanche Erskine) who grew up in Hobart where his father Samuel Smith Travers had brought his family in the mid 19th century.

Samuel Smith Travers had a sister Anne Amory Travers who married Charles Grant Tindal of Ramornie Station. John Travers Tindal was their second son  and he married Mary Isabel Ogilvie, the oldest child of Edward David Stewart Ogilvie of Yulgilbar and they were parents of Phyllis T.G. Tindal.

Confused? So am I at times but what this means is that Phyllis and Laurence had grandparents who were siblings. What does that make them? Second cousins I think.

In those days you couldn't marry just anybody. You had to choose someone from a "good family" and I guess your own family was a good one. In colonial Australia there was an even more limited pool and a look at the Ogilvie family tree shows that many of his children married family friends and/or neighbours.

Anyway I guess that accounts for some of the strong genetic traits in the Travers family today, along with our uncanny ability at playing the banjo!