Francis Telfer Smith

Role: Son of Esther Jane Telfer and John Smith

Born: 14 Feb 1874, Reedy Creek, Talunga (Mount Pleasant district), SA
Died: 9 Jul 1945, Nyngan District Hospital NSW

Father: John Smith (~1827–1895)
Mother: Esther Jane Telfer (1834–1909)

Family

Life Summary

Francis Telfer Smith was born 14 Feb 1874 at Reedy Creek, district of Talunga (the Mount Pleasant / Tungkillo area of the eastern Mount Lofty Ranges, SA) — the fifth child of Esther Jane Telfer and John Smith. He married Ellie Valentine Forbes on 7 Oct 1908 at Mullengudgery, then Catherine Gibson. He died 9 Jul 1945 at Nyngan District Hospital, aged 71, and is buried in Nyngan General Cemetery.

✅ Birthplace CORRECTED 11 Sep 2026 — Mount Gambier → Reedy Creek, Talunga. The vault previously carried "Mount Gambier" with no source. SA Birth Registration 132/305 (Genealogy SA, member access) reads: SMITH, Francis Telfer — 14 Feb 1874 — M — Father John SMITH — Mother Esther TELFER — Birth Residence Reedy Creek — District Talunga — Book/Page 132/305. This matches the family book A Telfer Family Tree (Supplement 2008) p.12, which also gives "Reedy Creek". Two independent sources now agree against the old vault text, so the vault was the outlier. The exact birth day (14 Feb 1874) is likewise register-backed, no longer inferred.
The district confirms it. Talunga is the Mount Pleasant district, ~80 km north-east of Adelaide — nowhere near Mount Gambier, which is ~380 km away in the south-east. The children's birthplaces form one tight cluster: Margaret Dougal 1867 Tothills Creek (Burra); Esther Telfer 1870 Tungkillo, Talunga (83/284); John James 1871 Tungkillo nr Mount Pleasant, Talunga (103/49); Francis Telfer 1874 Reedy Creek, Talunga (132/305). Four consecutive children, all within ~30 km. The family was living in the Mount Pleasant district, not the south-east.

⚠️ Verified correction (07 Aug 2026): Previously the relationship fields in this file had Father and Mother reversed (listing Esther Jane Telfer as "Father" and John Smith as "Mother"). Corrected — John Smith is the father, Esther Jane Telfer is the mother. Sources: WikiTree Telfer-591 (Esther Jane as daughter of Francis & Jean Murray), WikiTree Jorgenson-248 ("Hans Hansen (Jorgenson) Smith", husband of Esther Jane), FindAGrave 60478615/60478626.

Source: A Telfer Family Tree (Supplement) p.12 · From the Borders to the Bush Ch.3 (pp.36–57) — accessed 07 Aug 2026. Parentage cross-verified via FindAGrave 60478615/60478626 + WikiTree Telfer-591 / Jorgenson-248.

Birthplace source (added 11 Sep 2026): SA Birth Registration 132/305 — SMITH, Francis Telfer, 14 Feb 1874, M, father John SMITH, mother Esther TELFER, Birth Residence Reedy Creek, District Talunga — Genealogy SA online database, member access No. 24964, accessed 11 Sep 2026. Agrees with A Telfer Family Tree (Supplement 2008) p.12. Sibling registrations checked the same session for the district cluster: Margaret Dougal 1867 Burra 61/188; Esther Telfer 1870 Talunga 83/284; John James 1871 Talunga 103/49.

⚠️ Index-trap note: Genealogy SA's online index types the mother's name as "Esther ILFER" on the 1867 Margaret Dougal entry (Burra 61/188). That is an F-for-T transcription error for TELFER — same mother, not a second wife. The surrounding entries (1870, 1871, 1874) all read "TELFER". Do not treat "Ilfer" as a distinct person.

⚠️ Open lead — the father's name: Registers 132/305 (1874), 103/49 (1871) and 83/284 (1870) all record the father plainly as "John SMITH" with no middle name. A competing tree thread (WikiTree Jorgenson-248) names him "Hans Hansen (Jorgenson) Smith", and this vault's own father page titles him John Smith (~1827–1895), born Copenhagen 1830 to a Scottish sea captain and a Danish mother — the Danish naming pattern is plausible evidence for the Jorgenson form. Not resolved. A transcription of birth certificate 132/305 (Genealogy SA, $14.85 member rate) would carry the father's occupation and birthplace and would likely settle it.

Photograph

Francis Telfer Smith and his wife, Ellie Valentine Smith (née Forbes) — formal studio portrait of the couple, as captioned in From the Borders to the Bush, p. 45 (the photo-plate page that also carries sister Esther Kent née Smith's portrait and brother John James "Jack" Smith's couple shot with cousin Lillian May Telfer). Francis is seated in a dark suit with a buttonhole and prominent moustache; Ellie stands beside him in a dark high-necked dress with matching trim. Married 7 Oct 1908 at Mullengudgery (NSW). Source: the family book From the Borders to the Bush: The Telfer Family in Scotland and South Australia (1989), p. 45 — reproduction from the family archive copy.

Family Stories

🖊️ Anecdote — as told in From the Borders to the Bush (book pp. 39–40, 47–57): Frank, the young one, got his own place in 1898. The family took up a block at Mullengudgery — about seven-and-twenty miles out from Nyngan — and Frank drew it and named it with a pretty name, Eudora. He put up a great big weatherboard home on it, and he didn't stop at a house. He planted an orchard, and set shade trees all around so you'd get away from that western sun, and built a tennis court — you could see they meant to live properly out there. And he stocked the place with sheep and built up the Eudora Merino Stud, and he was that proud of them he'd take his rams right down to the Royal Sydney Show to parade them. And it was Frank, barely a man, who'd climbed on his pushbike with his brother Jack and ridden six hundred miles to see the country — the very loop that brought the whole family west. Eudora wasn't just a farm to Frank; it was a kingdom.

(Anecdote only — family colour, told as the elders tell it. Does not establish any relationship, date or place.)