The main purpose of this website is to show the six Traill stems: Traill, Barsham, Muller and Girdwood from my grandparents and in addition to Traill and Barsham, Howden and Gaddum from my half brother Ronald’s grandparents.
All Orkney Traill lines - our close and not so close cousins - descended from George Traill of Westness are now shown, where they can be established . These seven lines are: Holland, Westove, Elsness and Sabay, Tirlet, Frotoft, ("our" line), Quendall and Hobbister, Westness and Woodwick. Subsets of these lines in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA are included and I am grateful to researchers in these countries.
A further aim is to show all the cousins in the generations below Ronald and me and to include as much information about their ancestors. and those of their spouses as can be established.
An Irish Traill line is included to show my relationship to Captain Henry Traill RN who went onto the Retired List as I joined the Royal Navy. This line and mine have a common ancestor in John Trail of Blebo in Fife (1502 to 1564)
A subset of the Irish line contains the Traills of Argentina. Robert and Edmund, sons of the Rev Robert Trail emigrated there in 1866 and this line has been developed with the help of Argentine Traill descendants. It is my understanding that there is now only one family with the surname of Traill in Argentina, that of John [Juan] Traill who has four sons and three daughters.
The website is of course a never ending work in progress and will inevitably have errors and omissions. All corrections and additional information will be gratefully received.
Since starting this project, all the known research into the family over the last two hundred years has been collected and published in Australia by Elsie Ritchie, under the title "A Collected History of the Traill/Trail Family." New information from the Bedford County Archives has firmly established the de Trailly family in England from the time of the Norman Conquest and more detailed research has made the connection between the de Traillys and the Traill/Trails beyond doubt. This has now been reflected in Traill Family Connections. Story C contains an index of items of general interest in the Collected History together with the name of the person in Tribal Pages where the same or similar information is contained.
146 men on this site have been identified as having served in WW1 and have been "remembered" by me on the Imperial War Museum's website - livesofthefirstworldwar.org. Of these, 36 died on Active Service - a considerably higher proportion than the national average.