There are numerous publications available with comments about the Robinson/Holt family history. Some are accurate however the concern is many contain errors and this is one way to address such errors.

Correcting or highlighting the errors is important so other family researchers can identity the problems, below is a good example to start with.

Reminiscences of the Furneaux Group by Stan Blyth.

This book and These Days Have Gone Forever also by Stan can be recommended for anyone interested about the ‘old’ days on the Flinders.

There is one significant error identified in Reminiscences directly relating to the Robinson/Holt/Collis history and explains the innuendos heard over the years of descending from G. A. Robinson.

“while Dr Allen was on Clarke Island, he persuaded his brother in law, who was a son of George Augustus Robinson, to leave Victoria, where he [Robinson] had successfully established himself, and to transfer his domestic goods, etc, and his sheep to Clark Island.

‘The move was apparently unwise and Robinson was sometime engaged in teaching the children on Badger Island. His two sons James and William were reputed to be the founding father of the two well known and respected ‘Holts’, it was when one joined the armed forces in 1914  – 18 that they reverted to their true name of Robinson. But old customs die hard and when Tuck one of the boys married people would say here comes Mrs Robinson and Tuck Holt.”

Corrections:

[Dr Allen may well have been the brother in law of GA Robinson’s son – this Robinson was not the father of James and William.]

[Robinson teaching on Badger is incorrect and should read Collis.]

[The reverting back to Robinson has always been a curious subject to other families not related to the Robinson/Holt clan. The family of course well aware of the issue of having two surnames, the official (Robinson) and the adopted (Holt). Another version recently heard: the children of James and Emily didn’t know they were Robinson’s and only became aware when Horace and George enlisted in WWI. I don’t think this would be at all correct based on that the graves next to the family home where King (Henry) is buried (1896) has Robinson on his headstone]

Also of interest, Stan mentions: ‘John Smith and Harry Beeton leased Outer Sister in 1887’. This may well explain why James was on the North Sister Island otherwise called Outer as seen on this registration of birth for James (Tuck) 1894.

The Inner Sister – a scientific expedition with plenty of great photo’s and research.