Movember Ancestors #6: The Randell Brothers...

For today’s Movember picture we hit the jackpot with three of four Randell brothers having impressive moustaches. Anyone who had followed my blog for any length of time will know that I have written oodles of posts that relate to the Randell family from Berry Pomeroy in Devon and Gumeracha, South Australia. However I have tended to focus on my direct line, my great grandpa John Beavis “JB” Randell, and his father William Beavis Randell rather than branch off onto many of William’s other children – those from his first marriage (he had nine). Francis Henry “Frank” Randell was one of William Beavis’ sons, and these handsome boys are his sons. From left we have: Gerald, Allan, Horace, and Francis “Frank Jnr”. This photo isn’t dated, but Gerald was born in 1881, so I would say that this photo was taken early...

Movember Ancestors #5: William Bond...

Our #5 Movember Ancestors post features William Bond. Now let me be honest with you, I don’t know who William Bond is even though I do have this gorgeous photograph of him. My dad, who was the local historian for the Gumeracha region a number of years ago, has all sorts of photographs and ephemera that relate to people connected to the region, but who aren’t actually related to our own family. This one comes from a box of photos he has titled “Gumeracha”. As he’s not anyone that I’ve researched I can’t say a lot about him. But judging by the uniform (without any expert knowledge here), and the style of photograph I’m guessing he was in the military for the Boer War, but feel free to advise if you know of anything different. Well whoever William Bond was, he certainly looks very suave, and putting in the context of Movember, I think his ‘tache really suits...

Movember Ancestors #4: Gustaf Adolf ‘Gösta’ Winter...

For this Movember Ancestor picture we head to Finland. My great grandpa Otto Rafael Winter was a seaman who arrived in Australia in 1907, leaving behind his whole family in Finland.  So I am one eighth Finnish. Otto was of six children. He had two older sisters and three younger brothers. Gustaf who was generally known as Gösta was one of his brothers. Gösta has a fairly standard “English” style moustache in this picture. It is very neat, and goes well with the smart, distinguished look he has here. The inscription on the bottom of the photo says G.A. Winter, Helsingfors (which is another name for Helsinki in Finland) and is where the Winter family came...

Movember Ancestors #3: Allan John McDonald...

For my third Movember Ancestors photo, I’m sharing one of Mr Lonetester’s family photographs. One that I only saw for the very first time a few days ago, as I didn’t even know it existed. This is a stunning photograph of his great grandparents, Allan John McDonald and Emma Louise Maria Paech.  Both South Australian born, this couple married in 1906 at Murray Bridge in South Australia. It’s a huge photo (over A3 in size), and was obviously in a frame as some time which would have looked beautiful. As you can see the photograph shows some signs of wear, it is a little torn and scratched – but overall it’s in reasonable condition, and still is an amazing photograph. And sinc the topic of this post is about the moustaches, check out Allan’s upper lip facial hair. It looks to be a fairly standard “English”...

Movember Ancestors #2: Arthur Albert Beecken...

The second moustached ancestor I wish to introduce you to for my Movember Ancestors series is Arthur Albert Beecken. I don’t think I’ve mentioned the Beecken’s on my blog before. Not because they’re not interesting, but rather as it’s not a side that I’ve concentrated my research on yet, so I don’t have a whole lot of information. However I do know that Arthur Albert Beecken was born in South Australia in 1877, and served in the Boer War from 1898-1900. And according to the Beecken Family History book, he was the 32nd person in South Australia to enlist in the South Australia Mounted Rifles. In the first photograph Arthur sports a small “handlebar”‘ style moustache, which is sometimes also called a “trucker mo”. In the second he’s changed it up to a stylish “English” moustache with a touch of “pencil” added to the ends. For more an image of the many varying styles of moustaches available, please check visit this page, with another great pic...

Movember Ancestors #1: Samuel Phillips...

November is here, and that’s means that it is Movember – the month for mo’s! While I do contribute by donating to the cause as I believe it is an important one, I have decided to make November a month to highlight my moustached-ancestors. I’ve spent some time time browsing through all the old family pictures that I have scanned, and have come up with a number of moustached men, so have decided to share some of them with you throughout November for Movember. So for person #1 in my Movember Ancestors series I have chosen Samuel Phillips together with his wife Kezia ‘Sis’ Phillips (nee  Beecken). They are my great great grandparents. This photo was taken in 1939 when Samuel was 70, and Kezia was 72. She died shortly after this photo was taken, while he lived for another 20...