Treading in Family Footsteps

Here is seventh-generation Australian-born descendant of Robert Forrester (my daughter Thea) with her four children enjoying the Olympic spirit at Trafalgar Square in London in August.  My half-English, half-Australian grandchildren are two sets of twins born 14 months apart. The five-year-old (identical) boys are standing top-left and sitting bottom-right; the other two are six-year-old fraternal twins. A pretty unique family! Can you imagine managing that lot by yourself on long-haul flights out of Heathrow? Thea does.

What intrigues me is that the wheel has turned full circle - Thea and her children are standing on the site of the old Golden Cross Inn at Charing Cross. The British lion behind them marks almost the exact spot where the famous inn once stood. A major coaching business ran from the Golden Cross to many parts of England, a business operated for about fifty years from 1763 by Thea's direct forebears, a father and son both named George Boulton Esquire. Back in 1783 Robert Forrester lived just up the road and probably had an occasional drink or two at the Golden Cross, before his trial at the Old Bailey. George Boulton Esq (Jnr) and Robert Forrester were worlds apart in 1783 but, thanks to Australia, the two men are linked by the 5th-great-granddaughter they share, Thea.