"The Grandfather I Never Knew" Part 2

Idris was a teenager before that term was ever coined. In the 1920's you were a boy or a young man, there was no in between, particularly in Wales with the coal industry. It was also therefore understandable that Idris would accompany his father on the weekly missions Price conducted and that he would learn himself a trade. At one such mission he went forward for prayer himself to experience healing as he was ill. Later, in Penrhiwceiber, somewhere between 1929 and 1934, Idris would tell others that God gave him a vision and called him to the missions field. This took place during a 'cottage meeting' which was when a group of people would gather in homes to pray.

Idris Davies 1930's.

Idris had many skills. His father was a coal miner and for a while father and son would go to the 'Pit' together, yet Idris also learned to be an interior decorator and was handy with a paintbrush. This trade would come in very useful in his future; when he would build from scratch a family house. For now though, it was enough that he could work for a living. He also loved to sing and would often do so at the church meetings. Throughout his whole life people would always remark upon his voice and how lovely it was to listen to. For sports, he loved rugby and in that fashion he was a "true Welshmen."

At some point he moved to the Birmingham area and there met a young lady by the name of Iris Griffiths. They were married on December 24th 1938, at Bethel Gospel Temple, Wardend Road, Birmingham. The minister was Iris father Harold and he was a traveling preacher, busy both before and after the 26th which is holiday named Boxing Day in England. Therefore the 24th was the only date that would work. In 1939 they gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Grace Wendy.

As British involvement in World War 2 neared Idris began to work in some fashion upon the airplanes of the Royal  Air Force. I am unsure if he was an engineer or a general mechanic but as the war approached the tale is told that he had to parachute out of a plane, perhaps in some form of training and preparation. On one such occasion the exercise perforated his ear drum and he became unable to serve in the military. He was therefore placed in the Home Guard. His brother Glyn went to war

While in the Home Guard his job was a munitions inspector and a collector of the dead. He would have to physically put body parts together so they could be given a proper burial and funeral. If he found bombs that had not yet exploded he would have to call the bomb disposal unit immediately. Once, a spy gave away the location of a nearby ammunition factory that had been camouflaged by the British government. As the bombs dropped and the factory exploded Idris was in the area and dived to the ground just as they had all been trained to do. Upon opening his eyes and struggling to his feet he saw in front of him a single hand; an engagement ring upon the finger. His job now was to find the body to which it belonged.

That night, when he returned home his family asked him about the large explosion. It must have been more disturbing than usual because Idris had to share what happened with Iris and unknown to them their daughter Wendy overheard. That memory has stuck with their daughter ever since.

Fortunately, putting body parts together and inspecting munitions was not to be Idris lot for the rest of his life. There was work in Africa, building a house and raising three children but before all of that, the war had to end.

***
The information written in this post is drawn from the following material:

[1] Much information is provided courtesy of "A TESTIMONY and a brief record of the of the BEGINNING of the  PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT in the MERTHYR BOROUGH,BEDLINOG AND THE ABERDARE VALLEY by PASTOR PRICE DAVIES – annotated by RoyDavies
[2] Interviews were conducted with Glyn Davies, Merthyn Davies, Wendy Thomas nee Davies and Ruth Salmon nee Griffiths during the time period June 2012 - April 2013.
[3] Copy of Idris and Iris wedding certificate in the possession of the author.

Tech Tuesday: Using the Flipboard App

As the title suggests, I want to talk about the 'Flipboard' app for Apple devices such as the iPad and iPhone. Flipboard collates information from the web and puts it into a magazine format. A quick search on the internet tells me that it is also available for Android. Here's a brief video I made to explain how it works!

I love things like this: That make navigating stories in a blog easier! So in a nut shell - you download the app from the app store then when it loads in your phone or on your iPad find the search bar in the top right hand corner.

You can type anything into the search bar. So to find my blog I typed "Tall tales of a family." To find my friend Bill's stuff I typed "West in New England." Then a list appears and you select the blog or video or magazine you wish to see. Once you have selected that it will open up the blog site in magazine format.

If I want to create a specific magazine - like one specifically about the series I created on my Grandma then I click the little 'plus' buttons you can see appear in the image above. Each 'post' should have it's own 'plus' sign. Once I select this button it gives me an option to put it in an existing magazine I have created or to create a new one - I get to title it etc.

In the picture above you can see that I have three magazines. One is the stories of "The hymns of my fathers." One is "The Grandma I Never Knew" and the other is just a 'favourites' where I put my favourite selections from all over the web. It's not specific to genealogy - hence the "Man of steel" image. Once you have your magazine created you can select to view it and then on the left hand side is the option to share it. You can share it on a social network or you can share it via email like this:

Once it is shared a link is created that you can then send to others as well. The link for the magazine about "The Grandma I Never Knew" is here: http://flip.it/9VnSp

You can't see it without the actual Flipboard app but if you have the app go ahead and try it.

It might seem like alot of work but I'm always looking for ways to engage my generation of genealogists and those that are even younger than me. If they already have this product and you've created your 'magazine' it's so easy for them to add and see any updates. I've already had friends of mine that aren't generally interested in 'genealogy' begin reading my blog and the stories within because of this discovery.