There’s no doubt that when you get into family history, you need to learn about the social history, as well as the local history of the area your family came from as well. You simply can’t do one without the others.

My research which has previously seen me focus on my Finnish and New Jersey lines, has now brought me back to my South Australian roots to some of my emigrating families and their descendants. And as such, I’ve been learning a whole heap about my Randell family who founded Gumeracha, my Kelly family who founded Cudlee Creek,  as well as my Hannaford family who were early pioneers at Cudlee Creek.

For today’s Trove Tuesday post, I’d like introduce William Beavis Randell, now he’s an interesting character … World War 1 Air Force Lieutenant, POW in Germany and prior to all of that a world record holder for the half-mile on a Rudge motorcycle.

It’s true, family history is far more interesting that fiction!

Now before I go any further, I need to explain just “which” William Beavis Randell this is, as so far in my family tree I have five of them, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there ends up being more again.