"The Grandfather I Never Knew" Part 6 - The House That Idris Built

The Grandfather I Never Knew Part VI - The House That Idris Built

4 Taylor Avenue, under construction

Around 1950 Idris decided to work on building a house, it would become home at 4 Taylor Avenue, Morningside, Umtali. from scratch for the family. His inspiration was the house the family had lived in when in Birmingham. A neighbour named Mr. Richard (Dick) Vairy drew up the plans for the house. He happened to live on the same street and was also the building inspector for the entire town. They used to be neighbors to Idris, Iris, Glyn and Wendy. This was when the Davies’ lived at 21 Plantation Drive. Later Dick would build his own family house down the street from Idris’ new one. Idris had to borrow £3,000 to start work on the house. This must have been mainly for materials since he did all of the labour himself. When he had lived in Birmingham he had a job as a painter and carpenter. He was good at it. The finished product was a 3 bedroom, 2 storey building, with 1 ½ bathrooms. The downstairs bathroom had a toilet and a washbasin.

His daughter Wendy remembers it being the exact same design as the house in Birmingham but twice the size, making it possible for the addition of a small veranda on the front.

Chinky the cat next to the lower Bay Windows.

A view from the front. The family enjoy the lawn.
You can see both upper and lower bay windows. 

Wendy sat in the front of the house.

Idris looks out the lower bay window. 

It had two bay windows facing the front, one on the bottom floor and the other on the top. These were glazed by a Mr. Bodtga. These were leaded windows and therefore similar in design to stained glass. Inside the house a large dining room/sitting room area that could be separated by doors if so wished.

The dining room had French windows that looked out onto the back. Just outside was a concrete base that Idris had always intended to act as the flooring for a glass room that would then have a balcony above. This addition was never complete though. The French windows were the only ones of their kind in Umtali and Idris hired a glazer named Bodtga specially for the job.

There was a well somewhere on the premises and Idris would draw the water from the well to help with the construction process. Later the well was used to fill the baptismal font when they had baptism services at the house. Iris also used it to help water her garden. She particularly loved the rose garden she planted.

I believe this man's name was January.
The table he is serving from now belongs to Glyn and Norma

You can just make out Iris and Merthyn.

When completed the house became the meeting place for the first Assemblies of God congregation in Umtali. Idris built a font on the grounds specifically for when people wanted to be baptised.

Howard Amm remembers that there were about 8 people in the first group of young believers to be baptised there and it occurred on May 21st 1961.

Completed house at 4 Taylor Avenue, Morningside, Umtali. 

Idris suffered from stomach ulcers and when he pushed himself too hard they would act up. Towards the end of building the house they did so again. His response was to eat bananas and milk. This would apparently prevent the flare up from being so severe.

Bronwyn Mary Davies

Bronwyn is the name of my auntie who died at one month old. Born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) I had previously heard little bits about her but knew very little. Uncle Glyn, Auntie Wendy and Dad all told me she was born with Down Syndrome and died of Pneumonia. This was only a couple of years before Dad was born.

On January 24th I discovered that FamilySearch has a copy of the microfilm for the complete death records of Zimbabwe from 1904 to 1976. I decided to dig into them and see if I could discover a death certificate for Bronwyn. At the time I only knew her name as Bronwyn Davies. Glyn thought she died in 1954 but he couldn't recall a funeral. I was unable to check immediately with Glyn's brother Wendy who was older when Bronwyn died and might be able to recall the year of her death more definitively. So I started the search at volume 1 of 1954 and fortunately discovered Bronwyn in volume 2, nearly 300 records later.

Here's what it says:

Christian Name: Bronwyn Mary Davies

Sex: Female

Usual Place Of Residence: 4 Taylor Avenue, Morningside, Umtali

Age: 1 month

Birthplace: Southern Rhodesia

Race: European

Whether Single/married/divorced or widowed: Single

Occupation: Nil

Date of death: Eleventh of August 1954

Place of death: 4 Taylor Avenue, Morningside, Umtali

Intended place of burial: Umtali Cemetery 

Cause of Death: Dehydration, Hyperpynexia, pylorostenosis and mongol

Duration of last illness: (3 weeks and 4 weeks.)

Name and place of residence of medical practitioner: Dr. R. Levitt, Umtali

INFORMANT
Original Signature: Davies

Qualification: Father

When Registered: 12-8-54

Number of entry: 275/54

A few notes about the cause of death. Dehydration I think we are all familiar with. Hyperpynexia is used to describe a high fever, usually about 106 degrees.  Pylorostenosis apparently has to do with the the inability of the pylox valve in the stomach to open and pass food off to the duodenum. Mongol is a word they used to use to describe Down Syndrome.

The current practice of doctors is to list the cause of death first, then the contributing causes and then any underlying cause, condition or disease. I do not know if that was the practice in the 1950's but if so then in this case it would be death by dehydration, with high fever and Pylorostenosis causing the dehydration, with Down Syndrome being an underlying factor. 

Since the date of registration is written in British format, it is the 12th day of August 1954 that the doctor was notified. 

It has always been believed she died of Pneumonia with the underlying issue of Down Syndrome. I don't know if that would fit with what is recorded here or not. Back then many people ascribed respiratory problems to Pneumonia, whether that was the technical medical truth or not. 

Digging Deeper

I feel like I've learned so much in the last two weeks it's incredible. I have discovered little things about my family and alot about how to research genealogy, the websites familysearch.org and ancestry.com with its affiliates. I have discovered gen.com and PAF - files types I didn't even know existed until two weeks ago. What a learning curve I'm on. I am so glad I took the leap to finally pursue this.

I've been blessed with other family members who have already done alot of the hard work for me. My wifes mum has traced her family tree back several generations and has many many folders full of family trees, profiles, stories and documents. This tells me so much about the Dell's and Bhatt's. Both sides of that family are so interesting, with involvement in Ghandi's movement in India and creating mills here in the U.S.A. My wife's half Indian so that whole culture is fascinating to learn about.

On my side of the family, my uncle traced my mothers parents family tree back 200 years with dates and marriages etc. My Second cousin has traced my Dad's family back just as long. They are full of fascinating questions and stories, many of which I hope to relate to the general public on this blog over the coming years. For now let me leave you with this tidbit of information:




This document is so important for a variety of reasons. While right now every person mentioned in this newspaper article is alive (Except for Mr. and Mrs. Idris Davies), one day they won't be. Being from Zimbabwe it is really difficult to discover many of the records kept there. This article provides a fascinating insight into my Uncle Glyn (Formerly spelled Glyndwr), my Auntie Wendy and even a little bit of information about my Dad, Merthyn Owen Davies. It's already inspired me to interview my Dad when he comes over at Christmas. The interview will be all about life in Umtali and the schools he was a part of. I'm sure my Dad will love sharing those stories and I hope they're interesting enough that you will enjoy reading them too!