Dear Bruce,
I think that the various more or less successful attempts to preserve
Templar teachings within the oral traditions of various fanilies covers
precisely the points you are trying to establish. Add to these, the Tarot
and the widespread dissemination of, admittedly much earlier vehicles to
carry the same ideas, namely the Grail sagas of Chretien le Troyes and
Wolfram von Esenach, and one can readily perceive how surviving Templars did
carry the teaching forward to future generations.
This is most probably how much of Templarism crept into Freemasonry, via the
St Clairs of Rosslyn, for example. The carvings within Rosslyn itself is
part of the process - I have written several boks covering this among
theirother contents and one devoted to just this point.
However, the fact still remains that as an organised entity or order, the
Templars were done for.
Best wishes
Tim