New Photographic Discoveries of Great Grandfather Harold E Griffiths

Early last week I dived into researching the old Redemption Tidings of the Assemblies of God, Great Britain. I did not expect to discover anything more than some history on my great great uncle, D J Davies. Instead, I found a treasure trove of history as I discovered many more details about my families involvement in the early history of the Pentecostal movement in Great Britain, particularly as it pertained to the establishment of the Assemblies of God denomination. Amidst the magazines there were several photographs of varying degrees of quality.

Here's the photographs I discovered of my great grandfather Harold E Griffiths. All photographs are used with permission of the Donald Gee Foundation and the Assemblies of God in Great Britain. 

Harold E Griffiths, first left on the front row. 1947

Harold E Griffiths, front center, fourth from the left. 1950. His brother Rhys Griffiths is at the door. 

Harold E Griffiths. 4th from the right at the back. Next to the door. 1953

Harold Griffiths, center - playing the piano accordion. 1953

Harold E Griffiths at the very back - Prestatyn. 1967 

The stories behind the photographs will have to wait for a future blog post. 

David John Davies - Cause of death

"On February 4th 1931 my brother Pastor D. J. Davies, Ystrad Rhondda died and on February the 9th was buried at Penrhys Cemetery - Pastor Tom Mercy, Cross keys, and Pastor Clement Morgan, Dowlais, officiating; when there were about one thousand people at the graveside." - Memoir of Price Davies [1]

Reading that began my journey to discover David John Davies. Price Davies' grandson, Roy Davies, also added this annotation to the memoir several years later.

"The March 1931 issue of Redemption Tidings, the official magazine of the Assemblies of God in Great Britain and Ireland, reported that the Assembly Hall where the funeral service was held was crowded out and hundreds of people failed to get admission. According to Ron Evans, a member of the church in Ystrad Rhondda of which D. J. Davies had been pastor, satin cloth bookmarks with details of his death and funeral were produced to commemorate his work. Ron Evans’s father kept one in his bible for many years afterwards but later it was lost."

My last blog post on David John Davies tells the story of how I located the March 1931 issue. It also transcribes the text of the article. I still didn't know how he died though.

Having located that particular issue of Redemption Tidings I was then able to find an online archive of previous and future issues of the magazine.[2] I downloaded them and ran a search on "Davies" to see what showed up. There I found the sad story of David John Davies' death.

This article is found in the March 1931 Redemption Tidings Ambassador, a weekly magazine that had was only published for a couple of years by the Assemblies of God in Great Britain. Here is a transcription. (I have not corrected any spelling mistakes.) 

Ystrad (Mount Zion)

It is with greatest sorrow that we report the home-going of our beloved Pastor, Mr. D. J. Davies, on February 4th with tragic suddeness. 

Sister Davies was very ill and he left her to go to the Executive Presbytery Meeting at Manchester.[3] He returned with a chill, went to bed and in five days died at her side, no one realising the end was near--of bronchial pneumonia.

We have lost a father in Isreael, one who showed to all that it was possible in these days to live "Sermon on the Mount".

There was only one Mr. D. J. Davies. He was laid to rest on February 9th with kingly honours, at Penrhys Cemetery. Like Moses of old he rests on the hill-top, in view of the scene of his many labours for the Master. His funeral showed us how much he was loved, when great and small, rich and poor, saints and sinners met to pay their last tribute. What a gathering! What a lesson to learn therefrom. The world acknowledges that it pays to serve Jesus. Our loved Pastor stood meekly, quietly, steadfastly against all criticisms, controversies with nothing more or less than "The Spoken Word." His favourite reply was "The scripture saith."

The prayers of the saints have been effectual, our dear Sister Davies is better though not yet in our midst. She ever stood shoulder to shoulder with her lost loved one who lived to do "His sweet will," and we pray that by God's grace she will again come forth with us, to carry on much aggressive work, following on what has already been labour fundamentally wrought with much success on Full Gospel lines. 

We feel we have lost our pastor at a time we needed him sorely, but His grace is sufficient and we say

          Had He asked us well we know, we would say, oh, spare this blow. Yes, with streaming tears would say, Lord, we love him let him stay, but we bow and reverently say, Thy will be done.

          John Harvey, Sec.

There we have it. He died of Bronchial Pneumonia and it was very sudden. 

Later, on march 18th 1931, the Redemption Tidings Ambassador magazine contains a message from David John's wife.

Her message can be read in the top right hand corner, "Sister Davies (Ystrad) wishes to thank all kind friends and relatives for their prayers and love shown in her sad bereavement."

Price Davies adds in his memoir that: 

"The following week Mrs. D. J. Davies, with the Elders and brethren of the Ystrad Assembly sent a letter to the Elders and the Church at Penrhiwceiber asking them if they would please release me and let me come to be in charge of the work at Ystrad until Mrs. Davies who was ill in bed at the time, could take over. They kindly granted their request. I was there for two months under much blessing from the Lord."

Still sick and in bed at the time of her husbands death it must have been a shock for his wife Edith. I am glad that her brother in law Price was able to take up some of the work in Ystrad and at least relieve her of that stress. 

There is one other thing I would like to take note of. Price Davies was only requested until "Mrs. Davies...could take over." This was 1931 and the church was seemingly perfectly okay for a woman to be leading them. [4]

____

[1]  Towards the end of his life Price Davies decided to write a record of significant events he could recall occurring in the Welsh Revival and his life since. It is called, "A Testimony and a brief recording of the beginning of the Pentecostal Movement in the Merthyr Borough, Bedlinog and the Aberdare Valley." It has been passed around my family and an electronic copy was handed down to me about 10 years ago. 

[2] This online archive where I found Redemption Tidings is held by University of South California. The copyright of all Redemption Tidings issues is held by the Donald Gee Center at Mattersey Hall and the Assemblies of God, United Kingdom. The particular issues that the articles in this post are taken from are no longer under any copyright at all. 

[3] During my research of the Redemption Tidings and re reading of Price Davies' annotated memories I have discovered that David John Davies was one of the original executive board members of the Assemblies of God in Great Britain. The reason he set off for Manchester was to meet with these original executors (In many ways founders of the Assemblies of God).

[4] There were several times during my reading of Redemption Tidings volumes that it was indicated women led various churches throughout the movement. Whether they were full time ordained ministers or lay ministers I do not know. 

Motivation Monday - Genealogy goals for 2013

I think it will be a good thing for me to post my genealogy goals for the new year. My hope is it will help keep me accountable. So here goes:

1) I wish to write 24 genealogy posts in 2013.This means two a month. My aim is to post every other Friday starting Friday 11th January.

2) This past year I 'completed' a series on Iris Davies Nee Griffiths. My Grandma on the paternal side. I say completed loosely, for there will always be stories to add. In the coming year I wish to complete a similar series on my Grandad Idris Davies while adding to the ones I've created about Iris.

3) I will compile the stories about Idris into a family history book for my Dad. This past year I did the same thing for Iris and a blog will soon be forthcoming about that.

4) I will try and discover when my great grandad George Ernest Hilton was in the British Navy. I've already posted some leads but so far there are no hard facts just rumors passed on down through the family line.

5) Read Gerald Griffiths book. Gerald is a descendant of my Great Grandad Harold Griffiths brother. He's recently created a biography of his life for his Children. He sent me a copy and I am sure there are things in there that may relate to my great grandfather Harold or his parents.

6) I will try and locate the Umtali newspaper articles about my dad and his life saving procedure the day after he was born.

7) I will scan and upload to the cloud all family photo's and documents that I have in my possession.

And that already looks like quite alot. I am really excited about the additional interviews that I will have to conduct to learn about my Grandad Idris and I am sure I will discover alot of stories I am currently unaware of!

Hymns Of My Fathers - "I fell in love with the Nazarene"

This is the first in a series of blogs that will endeavor to capture the heart of some old hymns. They are not just any hymns but those which I know my ancestors sang. I will post the lyrics with some information about who crafted the hymn and why. Sometimes I may explore the words and lyrics of a tune and sometimes there may also be a family story behind them. I hope you enjoy reading about this as much I will sharing them with you.

Harold Emanuel Griffiths

There are many things to write about Harold but for the purpose of this blog it is enough to say this: He was a man of great conviction who became a Christian sometime after World War 1. He became a Pentecostal minister who planted churches around the United Kingdom and Ireland, in partnership with Edward Jeffrey's who started the Bethel movement. These churches later joined the Elim and Assemblies of God churches on the European side of the Atlantic.[1] Many of the churches he planted bare the name "Bethel" today. As well as a preacher he was a pianist and a singer. He composed a new tune to the formerly well known hymn of "I fell in love with the Nazarene." The words are as follow:

Verse 1

"The Master stood in the Judgment Hall of Pilate great and strong,

He stood there silent and alone for all his friends were gone.

They had scattered far and near, and left him with the throng,

No voice of love his heart to cheer, thro' all the morn' so long."


Chorus

"I fell in love with the Nazarene, "The beautiful Nazarene."

Whose face with glory was a-light, the fairest I have seen.

Near his side I would abide, with ne'er a veil between,

Since I fell so deep in love with Jesus "The Nazarene."


Verse 2

"His face was fair as lilies white, a halo round his head,

While all around was black as night, their souls thro' sin were dead.

See his hands all bound with thongs, the thorn crown on his brow,

Hark! The Angels mournful song, "All heav'n in sorrow now."


Verse 3

"The angry mob cried out in wrath, "Crucify him now!"

And so he trod Golgotha's Path, The life blood on "His brow."

On on he trod and bear the Cross, But never made a moan

Weak and falling from the loss, of blood yet not a groan."


Verse 4

And when they nail'd him to the Cross, with cruel spikes and deep,

His face diviner grew to me, And I began to weep.

All His anguish quite forgot, I heard him gently pray:

"Father forgive, for they know not the wrong that they have done."

I must confess, I don't know the original tune, and I haven't yet heard the tune my Great Grandfather composed for it. I have however convinced my Mum that when my parents are over to visit at Christmas she will play the tune for me. How do we know the tune? Harold's granddaughter sent me these images via email:








They came with the following message:

"I think it is an appropriate song to remember Harold by as he never got over the love of God, the wonder of his salvation and he had a deep love for the Lord. It is a moving song and anything Harold played was moving and congregations would laugh, cry or worship depending on what Harold did on the piano as he sang. When you hear this song you can imagine the power of God at work when Harold ministered in music. 

I remember hearing Harold (tenor) and Nance (alto) singing it. I also remember hearing David singing it. He had a lovely voice, as did all of them. I suppose you know the whole family sang song items together at services."

History

It has taken me a while to track down the origins of this song. I searched some of the books about old hymns from the 19th and early 20th century but couldn't turn anything up. Eventually however I found a site online that contained "The Weekly Evangel Issue 169, Dec 16th 1916." I believe this was a tract that was given out in the beginning of the Pentecostal movement to people and churches connected with it. In it is the story of Sarah Payne, a former song writer for 'the world' as she said herself. This was the first song she created after "Giving her life to Jesus." It was written within moments of this commitment and nearly burned to ashes a few days later. Fortunately for my Great Grandad and many many others, it wasn't.

****

[1] An early version of this blog said he campaigned with the Jeffrey's brothers. This might be true, but I have changed it to Edward Jeffrey's because there is evidence of this in a pamphlet created to commemorate the building and commissioning of Bethel Church at Milton Hall in 1950. This church was built by Harold E. Griffiths. 

How I found Anney!

I have mentioned before that when it comes to Genealogy I am fortunate to have some other family members that have done the hard work for me. Many branches of my family tree have already been explored to a certain extent. There was one significant branch that was missing; that of my Great Grandmother Simpkins. I initially put her name down as Annie in the searches I made through census records but I couldn't find her. Then I changed it to Anne but still no luck. On Ancestry a picture of a little green leaf appears if the name matches any records they have. The name didn't.

So I waited a few weeks; in genealogy there are always more things to move on to. I'm still looking for information on Great Granddad George Wright and there are the ongoing interviews with family about my Grandma Iris, as well as many many other people to research. Within the past week though, Great Aunt Ruth sent me some information confirming Anne's father was John Simpkins and she had a sister called Lily. Great I thought, now I can search for Anne/Annie in conjunction with her father.

I put in some simple searches and it still came up with nothing. I must state, probably much to the chagrin of my Aunt Ruth, that I was unsure whether she had given me the right names. [The moral of this story - never doubt an Aunt, particularly about her own mother!] As I looked back over the information I had gathered I realised Anne was definitely Annie because I discovered a wedding between Harold Emanuel Griffiths and Annie Simpkins from 1911. I've sent off for their marriage certificate but it hasn't arrived yet. I also realised that they definitely lived in Abertillery at some point. So again I ran the search, and this time a close match popped up. I discovered this!



Anney, there you are. Yes, Anney...with her whole family. So this is how they spelled Annie in 1911. Or at least, that is how the person taking notes for this particular census form spelled Annie. It doesn't help that her mother was recorded as Eliz, when I had it down as Elizabeth. Which brings me back to something I read on my friend Bill's blog once. [His blog can be found at www.westinnewengland.blogspot.com] It is also listed on the right hand side of my blog.

He mentioned how many people in previous times didn't know how to spell their own names and had never had to write them before. Therefore many names were probably spelled phonetically, or close to it. When it came to a census the person conducting the census might have no idea how certain names are spelled. All this leads to a variety of names being found on a census for the same person. If you look closely at this particular form you will notice that John's last name is "Simpkins" and Eliz' last name is "Simkins." It's a prime example of how lax some people were on the spelling!

Now that I had found Annie in 1911 and all of her family, I sent a quick message to Great Aunt Ruth to confirm it was the right one. It is - so I'm pretty sure that with the information from this form I can trace her back through the other records now.

And that is how I found Anney!

The Grandma I Never Knew. Part 2 1938-1944

[Let me first start by addressing a mistake I made in my first post about Iris Griffiths. I mentioned that due to her older sister Annie being partially blind and deaf Iris may have done most of the house hold chores. I have been informed by one of their sisters that Iris did not take over from Annie's duties. This makes Annie quite a remarkable person, but that is another story;)]

Contributors to this post are: Merthyn Davies, Glyn Davies, Wendy Thomas and Ruth Salmon. Thank you, I could never have done this without you.

[Above: Iris Davies with her 2 eldest children Wendy and Glyndwr, in Birmingham abt1947]

After the death of William Sergeant, Iris was single for a while. By this time most of her family had moved to Birmingham and Iris went with them. No one is completely sure how Iris met Idris Davies, but it seems fair to say they may have met at Church. Both were devout believers and both had a Pentecostal upbringing with fathers who were preachers. The story of their meeting however is one that I have not yet discovered.

On Dec 24th 1938 Iris was married to Idris and became Mrs. Iris Davies. The wedding took place at Bethel Gospel Temple, Wardend Road, Birmingham, England. Iris' father Harold Griffiths was a traveling preacher and he was due to be speaking and planting churches in Ireland both before the 24th and after Boxing Day. (1) So the 24th it was!

Their first child was soon born; Grace Wendy Davies! The lives of everyone around the world were to be horribly interrupted shortly after. On September 1st 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Britain, France and most Commonwealth (2) countries declared war on Hitlers' Germany. World War 2 had begun.

The Davies' were affected in a similar way to most of those in Britain at the time. Some family members went to war while others were involved in the Home Guard.(3) Below is a picture of Idris with his brothers DavidJohn, and Glyn. Glyn went to war, the others were in the Home Guard.

During World War 2 Iris' husband Idris became a munitions inspector but Iris worked at the local Woolworths. Woolworths was a chain of shops in England. Iris would operate the elevators. Their son Glyndwr recalls visiting Iris with his Grandpa Harold Griffiths. They watched as she operated machines to move the Elevator. In those days it did not move at the push of a button!

During the war Iris and Idris lived at 54 or 45 Heather Road in Birmingham and that house is still standing today. The same can't be said of every house of that street. Birmingham was bombed often during World War 2 and the Blitz. The Blitz was a series of bombing raids organized by Germany and night after night would see the bombs come down on all the major cities of Britain. Birmingham was the second most bombed city of Britain during this time period. Over 2,000 people were killed in Birmingham with many more injured.(4)

Like others, Iris and the family were given Anderson Bomb shelters, sturdy Air Raid Table shelters, and drills in what to do when the Air Raid sirens sounded.(5) Iris' sister Ruth recalls that Iris, Ruth, Wendy and one of their neighbors would all run to the shelter.

"We used to go down in the shelter that Idris had made in the garden, he made it very comfortable so we could play games while the bombs were dropping all around us. Idris was out & about in the Home Guard helping to dig people out that had been hit." - Ruth Griffiths

Iris father Harold was also not with them as he was "out there praying with people who were dying."

In the shelter they would sometimes sing to try and drown out the noise of the bombs falling and the guns firing. Sometimes they would play games like Ludo, Tiddlywinks and Drafts.(6) 

Wendy remembers that the Air Raid Table was used for those times that they couldn't make it to the Anderson shelter or if the shelter was flooded. There was only one time she can ever remember using it and none of them thought it was safe. On another occasion a bomb had a direct hit on a house just four lots away, It was demolished and the windows of Iris' house came breaking inwards. As the family ran down the hallway to reach the Anderson shelter they discovered a piece of burning shrapnel had flown in with the glass and landed on an Eider Down (7) on the sofa, setting fire to it. Fortunately they saw  it and were able to put it out or the whole house may have burnt down.

It wasn't all doom and gloom though. Wendy observes that Iris would often take her to the clinic where they would have to do all kinds of tests. Then they would have to do silly exercises like picking up matchsticks with your toes to stop your feet from becoming flat. [There's more to this story but it is related to another blog of the future.]

Then towards the end of the war their second eldest, Glyndwr was born. It was often joked among the family that "Wendy began the war and Glyn finished it". 

****
Notes

(1) Boxing day is December 26th In England.
(2) The Common Wealth, formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is made up of a collection of countries that used to be part of the British Empire.
(3) The Home Guard is a term used during WW2 in the United Kingdom, for those people who volunteered to serve with the military at 'home'. They were usually ineligible for military service due to age etc. and were employed in many tasks from cleaning up wreckage, last line of defence, and putting bodies back together.
(4) This website can give many more details about the affect of the Blitz and bombing on Birmingham during WW2  http://www.swanshurst.org/barra/
(5) Anderson Shelters were given free to many British house holds during and in the lead up to WW2. They provided excellent protection from ground shocks but had a tendency to flood during cold weather. An Air Raid Table was just what it sounds like. A table that was perhaps sturdier than your average table but a table never the less.
(6) Ludo is a game similar to the American board game "Trouble." Opponents race their counters around the board from start to finish by throwing the dice and moving accordingly. Drafts is known in America as "Checkers".
(7) An Eider Down is like a quilt but made out of Eider Duck feathers.

Tech Tuesday: Using Pinterest for your Family History Photographs

Tech Tuesday is a blogging prompt used by the Geneabloggers group and others to help inspire bloggers to post. Today my post is dedicated to using Pinterest.

I've been aware of Pinterest for a while but I hadn't really looked into it. As I started this blog I thought, wouldn't it be cool to have another place where family members and others can just view the photographs of our ancestors. In essence, the tale of our family through pictures. With this in mind I created a Pinterest board specifically for it. The link is contained in the information section on the right hand side of this page. I will also post it here:

http://pinterest.com/michaeldavies1/tall-tales-of-a-family/

Pinterest is a social networking tool based around images. People post images that fit around a specified criteria to their Pinterest site. You have to be invited to use it but you can personally request an invite through their main webpage. After my initial request it took them a day before inviting me. Pinterest is linked to a Facebook account so you have to be careful about your settings unless you want every picture posted mirrored to your Facebook timeline.

Once on Pinterest you create something called "a board." This board can be called anything you like and about anything you like. I called mine "Tall Tales Of A Family." Original eh! You can change the name at any point but the link to the site will also change. Once a board is created you pin [upload] pictures to the site. Alternatively, if you find an image online you can pin that to the site without downloading it to your computer. Family and friends can then leave comments with each picture, a great way to share memories.

So now I have another place online that people can connect with my family history blog. It's a visually driven site and hopefully provokes enough questions that people want to find out more.

A word to the wise. If you are using photographs of living people, make sure to get their permission before you post it. This should be just the same as when blogging an article. Whenever I post a story that contains the name of someone living or the immediate family of someone living I make sure to give the living relative an advance copy and I do not post the blog until they have affirmed it. Sometimes they make suggestions that improve the story. Sometimes they notice mistakes and they always have the option to say they are uncomfortable with that story being put online. The same should definitely be true of their own photographs as well.

With all that said, why don't you hop on over to Pinterest, maybe visit my own Pinterst 'board' and see how you like it.

Hunting for George Part 1

Just a note at the beginning to say that unlike some of my previous Blogs this research is very much still in progress. Where I know 100% that it is a fact I will state so. George Ernest Wright was my Great Granddad on my Mum's Nanna's side. He was born in 1884 in Lincolnshire.[Fact] My Uncle told me that he served during the Boer War and was on a small boat that helped with the rescues at Dunkirk. This instantly intrigued me. For those who aren't familiar with these pieces of British history here is a brief summary.

The Boer Wars were fought in the late 1800's and last Boer War was from 1899-1902. It is this last war that my Great Granddad George will have fought in. The last war was fought to regain the Boer Republics as British colonies. During the latter stages of the war the British rounded up the Boer families into concentration camps. While intended to be different to the use of concentration camps by Germany during and before world war 2 it never the less had a very similar affect. The Boers who were will fighting hit the supply trains that were due to bring food and hygiene supplies to the people in the camps and the result was very often disease, starvation and death. It was also this war that led to Britain seeking out additional allies and making more binding treaties. A condition that would lead in large part to the onset of world war 1.

Dunkirk is considered one of Britain's greatest memories. At the onset of world war 2 many French and British forces were trapped in the city of Dunkirk. They had no where to run and only the English Channel at their backs. Winston Churchill called for the British people to help with a massive evacuation of all troops from Dunkirk and called for a National Day of Prayer as the evacuations took place. Over the course of the next couple of days over 300,000 troops were evacuated. Fisherman and boat owners from all over England sailed their boats down to Dunkirk and helped the Royal Navy rescue all of the soldiers stranded. Because of the success of this evacuation Britain and France maintained most of their military men and were able to continue waging war despite the bleakness of the situation after Hitler conquered France and mainland Europe. Great Granddad George Wright took his own boat to help with this evacuation. Who wouldn't want to know more about this person?

I remember when I was younger, having a conversation with my Nanna about how her family had once lived in the small nearby village of Binbrook. Sure enough, George was born to James and Hannah Wright in Binbrook (Formerly Westerman) in 1884. [Fact] From this point the waters become a little more murky. The 1891 census doesn't show George living with his parents, but it does show an Ernest. I once read that the reasons we have middle names is so that "A child can know when they are in trouble." I might change that to; "So that a genealogist can know he's confused."




Since George's middle name was Ernest it isn't a complete leap of faith to believe it might be the same person. After checking with a friend who has been doing genealogy much longer than I, he said it was quite possibly the same person. In his own research his ancestors often changed from first to middle names in the census etc. He finished by saying, "If the age is right, it's probably the right Wright." I liked that quote so I have included it!

So in 1891 Ernest Wright is listed as six. Depending on the month it was taken he could very well have been born in 1884. However neither Ernest or George are present during the 1901 census. For that matter neither is James. His father James seems to have died in 1900. If George joined the military and fought in the Boer War he will have likely joined by 1899. So the next stop is to see if any military records can shed light on this - while emailing my Uncle to see if he can shed any further light on it. That research will have to wait for another blog!

Grandparents. What's in a name?

While researching my Grandparents it's been interesting just to note what names they preferred to be called.


My Nanna and Granddad (May Wright and Ernest Hilton) were always called Nanna and Granddad and always in that order for some reason. Even now it just seems to roll off the tongue with a Nanna first, then a Granddad.

This is a photograph taken of them on their Wedding Day, April 22nd 1944.



Below is a photograph taken sometime in the 90's for their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. I remember when this was taken as I was there. I was due to sing a solo at the celebration and that week I had a five a side indoor football (soccer) tournament. While attempting to head the ball it hit me in the nose and scraped off my skin. So I had to sing with a nose that had half its skin gone.



While I never met my Grandparents on my Dad's side he always calls them Grampy and Grammie Davies. I'm probably butchering those spellings because I've never written them down before. Below is a picture of my Grandparents with two dogs, Tanya and Meghan. I'm still hunting around to see if any surviving relatives have a Wedding photograph of these two love birds. Or rather, my relatives are hunting around for me, while I do the pestering!



It made me think. I wonder if what we called them has something to do with a culture we have now forgotten? I'm sure if I do a little investigation I might identify a geographic or cultural region that resulted in these names. Dad's parents were Welsh, do any of the Welsh side of my family know if Welsh grandparents were always referred to in this way? It will be interesting to find out!

Grampy and Grammie I wish I could have met you! Nanna and Granddad, I always will miss you! To all of you, I am looking forward to the day when we will all meet again:)

If any family members are reading this and would like a copy of these photographs please let me know!

Stories that lead to stories

One of the great joys I've experienced since starting to trace my family tree is the joy of meeting and talking with people in the family I never really knew. Not only does this speak to me on a profoundly emotional level, but it also helps out a great deal with the giant jigsaw that is a family.

As I've previously blogged about, I decided to try and interview whoever I could about my family. To begin with, I spoke with my Mum and Dad. My parents are moving out of the country, and as they are doing so, they have dug up a few old photographs that had been shared with them. As we spoke about the photos, Dad was able to remember several little events and point out to me who the people were in the photographs. People have names, names lead to questions, which lead to stories, which lead to more things to talk about :)

As I asked questions about Dad's Mum, Iris Griffiths, he pointed me in the direction of her sister Ruth. I do not think I have ever met Ruth but someone had taught her how to use Facebook. I instantly felt a strong connection with her as Ruth began to answer the many many questions I have about Iris, her family and life as she grew up. I now count Ruth as a good friend and I am honored to spend time each week picking her brain for little tidbits of information. As we spoke (or rather, typed) Ruth thought of someone else I should contact. She helped me get in touch with the daughter of her brother David.

Today I had the first conversation with my "First cousin once removed." At least I believe that's the term! Her mother (Betty or Rosemary) is still alive and now I will be able to send some questions to her mother via email. Just from the few minutes I have spoken to my newly found cousin, I have already found out some great information. More details will be forthcoming.

I'm a Christian and deeply interested in my ancestors faith as well. Turns out my Great Grand Parents on Grandma Iris' side were descended from theJews. Rosemary might be able to shed some light on this and I am super excited about asking questions and hearing the stories that will help explain this connection! So this tree here - will hopefully become more than blank slots!





So for those who still have relatives living that can share stories you yourself have not experienced, or remember information you simply do not know - ask them about their life while you still can! This week there are more people I'm hoping to connect with. My Auntie Wendy (Dad's sister), my Aunt Winnie (My Mum's aunt), and my Uncle Michael (Mum's brother). So much to learn and so little time. I can't wait to hear from them!

There's an old African proverb that says, "When an old man dies a library burns down." I think this was made famous during a 70's T.V. program called "Roots." I'm glad that part of the "library" these people contain can now be passed on!

The Grandma I Never Knew. Part 1 1918-1938

(Based on birth and marriage records, and an interview with Ruth Griffiths, younger sister of Iris Griffiths. All quotes are from the interview with Ruth Griffith in June 2012)



The Early Years

Iris Griffiths was born to a Harold. E. Griffiths, and Annie Griffiths (Formerly Simpkins) on the 25th February 1918, in Wales.[1] She was the second of 9 children who despite the family moving around a great deal, were always born in Wales. As Ruth, one of the younger sisters would later say, “Mum & dad wanted all the children to be born in Wales as Dad wanted us all to be true Welsh. Mum would stay in Wales for 6 weeks.” (Just enough time to ensure they were registered there.) Though many of Iris’ siblings would be named after people from the Bible, her father Harold was not yet a Christian[2] and both Iris and her older sister Annie were not named in this fashion.

Wales at the time was dominated by the mining industry and in the early years her father, as with most of the community, would go daily to the mines and complete another hard day’s work. Even the walk to the mines could be quite long, over hilly terrain no matter what the weather had to offer. It is important to remember that while countries such as the U.S.A. were not suffering from a depression in the 1920’s, most of Britain was. World War 1 had left Britain in debt and with a significant cut in economic output. People were glad for what work they had.

Life in those days was without the creature comforts we are now so familiar with. Even a cup of tea would require collecting water from a pump, lighting a fire and then finally beginning to boil the water. There were no washing machines or dryers, clothes would be washed in the sink or at the well. Iris eldest sister Annie, although born mostly blind still did a lot of the house work.

Iris loved dancing and by the 1930’s she liked a certain man named William [Bill] Sargeant. Bill, by all accounts, was a genuine nice warm fellow and Iris would sneak out at nights and go down to the local dance hall so they could dance together. This showed a certain mischievous streak, for by this time Iris father was a vicar and would not allow dancing as it was, “mixing with the world.” It therefore should come as no surprise that her father would often check on her at night. Finding her bed empty he knew exactly where his dancing, life filled daughter would be. Making his own way to the local dance hall he would confront Iris and bring her home. It didn’t seem to stop her for long though, for as her younger sister Ruth would recall, “This happened quite a few times.”

Finally, at age 18 on Dec 19th 1936, Iris married Bill. The wedding took place at the Wesleyan Chapel, Cheddleton, Cheadle, Staffordshire, England. Since Iris was 18, she must have had her father’s permission. Harold was the sort of man you would want permission from and since Iris was not yet 21 it was unlikely she did not have it. No doubt Harold secretly liked the spritely lad who would oft' spirit away his daughter to the local dance halls. Unfortunately the marriage was not to be for long. Bill died in 1937, soon after their wedding. He had suffered from ear ache for quite some time and soon after they were married, Iris, being the determined woman she was, finally convinced him to go to the hospital and have it seen to. He never came back from the hospital. There had been something seriously wrong with the mastoid in his ear. Despite the sadness of this time it did pave the way forward for a different life that would eventually take Iris half way around the world to Southern Rhodesia in Africa.


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[1] On January 27th 2017 I looked through old records provided me by a family member and discovered that I believe Ruth must have Iris' birth year wrong. I think it was 1916, which would make Iris 20 when she married William Sargeant.

[2] A short biographical pamphlet published in 1950 for the opening of Milton Hall, Assemblies of God, lists Harold Griffiths conversion date as 1922.

Interviewing Family

As I have been asking my Dad questions about his mum I have discovered one of my grandma's younger sisters is still alive. Her name is Ruth Salmon (Formerly Ruth Griffiths) and she lives in Stoke on Trent, where her family has lived for many years. But what a discovery, for this now means I can ask Ruth many questions about Iris childhood that I otherwise would not have been able to ask and may have never known!

Suffice to say I have been doing just that. Now with Ruth living in England and I living in the U.S.A. I have been asking these questions via email and Facebook. Initially I jumped straight in and asked a couple of questions about Iris first husband William. No one knew much about him in my family and although Ruth was not able to say too much I did discover a couple of little things. From here I dove into my grandma's personality and early years. A friend and genealogy blogger Bill West suggested interviewing via photographs. I have not been able to conduct this method yet because I have no pictures of Iris from situations Ruth will have known. All my photographs of Iris were from when she lived in Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwe.) I am using this method with my Uncle Glyn however!

I used this website as an outline for questions I can ask.

http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm

I found it quite useful and I am sure it will be beneficial for those who have no idea where to start with such interviews! I am now looking forward to a blog post entitled, "The Grandma I never knew." It may still be many days away but I am beginning to create a write up of all the interesting facts about Iris that will help give me a glimpse at who she really is!

Getting Started

So when I decided to start researching the genealogy of my family I had no idea where to begin. I'm sure others who are making such a decision are also asking the same question, 'Where the heck do I start?' I asked a friend. I found someone who was interested in genealogy and had kept their own blog and records. I asked for tips and they gave me a few websites to start a family tree, some software to keep it on and websites to search for records.

The website I was directed to was www.myheritage.com/genealogy . It allows you to download some great software for beginning your family tree. I then went to familysearch.org which is a database initiated by the church of LDS. They have done a great job working to make many many records free for those that need it. This is a good general database to begin using.

This of course led me to helping with their indexing myself. Indexing is when you take an image of a record and transcribe it into an electronic format that is searchable. I'll write more about indexing on another day.

The next thing I did was ask my family members what they knew of our past. I discovered that two of them had already started researching my families past. My Uncle Michael had researched my Mum's side, and my second cousin Roy Davies, had researched my Dad's side. My wife's mother had also researched both sides of my wife's family.It was perfect really. I know most people won't be fortunate enough to have so many involved in genealogy in their family, but the principle of asking family members for help still remains.

I'm only a couple of weeks into it but the last tip I have is to write everything down! I keep a word document that I record all my notes in as I'm talking with family members and I am buying a journal that I will be able to keep notes in if my laptop is unavailable. So write and record, you always think you will remember but you rarely remember all of the details!

So in Summary:

1) Make the decision

2) Ask anyone you know who does genealogy - for tips etc.

3) Check out some basic genealogy websites that provide free information

4) Talk with family members

5) Keep a journal / log of everything


I'm still learning, but I'll keep sharing as I do!

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!

Beginnings

As I determined to start discovering my families history and ancestry I sent some quick emails to my Uncle Michael and a certain Roy Davies. I'm not sure at this stage how Roy is related to me but I think he's my Dad's cousin. I know it's terrible that I don't even know that yet but I shall and you shall hear about it when I figure it out!

Roy has a lot of information from my Dad's side but has not yet sent me the details though he will! On the other hand, my Uncle sent me an email with birth dates and names of my mums side of the family. My Grandad - Ernest Frederick Hilton was born in Tamworth and it appears his family lived there for a good 150 years before he moved. I know that one of his sisters is still alive and sends me a Birthday card every year. She's amazing! They still live in Tamworth although my Grandad moved to Cleethorpes in the North East of England where my mum was born.

I've published the family tree that my Uncle has put together. It can be found here:

http://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-189356582/first-generation-genealogy?familyTreeID=1

My Uncle sent another interesting tidbit. I'll quote him,

"It would appear that the Hilton's started in Tamworth but some finished in the Workhouse and from there were sent to Wolverhampton area to work in terrible conditions as locksmiths in back to back houses before returning when that industry started to decline."

So I'm happy; the journey has started and hopefully I can help add to what my Uncle has already discovered!
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Venturing Forth

An old friend of mine started blogging about his family one day. When I say his family, I mean his extended family, as in extending into the past. His blogs fascinated me. You see it was a genealogy blog. He was searching into his families past and putting together a history that would otherwise have been forgotten. I never told him this but I am pretty sure I loved the short stories he would share almost as much as he did. You see, until he uncovered the tales of his ancestors they were a mystery. In my eyes, genealogy is like that. Gradually, over time you peel back the pages of this novel and discover the mystery within. Only instead of starting from the beginning and reading forwards, you're starting from a point somewhere (hopefully) in the middle of the book and reading backwards.

Orson Scott Card wrote a book called "Pastwatch." In Pastwatch historians of the future would watch history happen through a machine that allowed you to view the past. Some of them chose to focus on a particular individual and watch their life backwards, seeing the events before the causes. This idea fascinates me!

So I've decided to join my friend and hopefully discover some of the tall tales of my own ancestors. This blog is dedicated to such findings. I'll let you know everything; from starting out on the genealogy journey, conversations with family members and maybe you will catch the bug too. Perhaps you're like me? You're thinking how the heck do I start to find my families genealogy? Where do I start? I've often found the best thing to do in such situations is to dive right in. That's what I'm doing. I truly hope you have as much fun reading this as I do sharing it!