Our Team

Dr Lesley Silvester

Lesley's a Londoner who came to Australia with her family in 1961. After a career in nursing and administration, Lesley's long-standing interest in genealogy resulted in her starting the busy genealogical firm TimeTrackers in 2000. Lesley's interests are historical and genealogical research and education.

In her later life Lesley took to tertiary studies with gusto: she gained a BA (Archaeology) from the University of Sydney, a Graduate Diploma in Cultural History from Curtin University (WA), an MA and most recently a PhD in Medieval and Early Modern Studies from the University of Western Australia. Her theses for both her MA and PhD both heavily relied on genealogical methods to address specific historical issues. Her PhD thesis was a longitudinal study of the poor of Norwich in the 16th Century and encompassed issues of kinship, demography and survival strategies of the desperately poor.

Mike Murray

Mike's interest in genealogy started in 1989, sparked by the sudden death of his mother and the realisation that she was the fount of all family knowledge, which had now gone. Mike resolved to find out more about the family's roots, and has been successful in tracing his mother's side in Ireland for many generations and the Murray family's Scottish roots back to the 1600s. Like many of us, the quest for his family roots aroused his passion for genealogy and history.

After retiring from a career in industry and international consultancy, Mike joined his wife Lesley in running TimeTrackers. As well as helping with research, Mike is involved in teaching and publishing. Mike's engaging presentation and teaching style stems from his successful consulting background and passion for his subjects.