John Ball - John Ball, 1670, of Virginia .... mixed up parentage

I have some familiarity with a Ball family who intermarried with the Lee family and there is a descendant on Geni who knows more. There is a lot of mis-merging in this family. There's a good free online resource in Google Books as I remember for the Ball family.

Laetitia Corbin Ball

Letitia Ball

Two Letitia Lees who married Ball cousins. See the source at the end of the second profile, but be careful since I found one error in it. There are many many Southern Ball and Lee families who named their children the same names.

You may have to check each profile, generation at a time, adding notes. At least that's how I do it. Unless there is more current information than 1981 - have you looked at DNA projects? - It seems that John Ball 1670 has no known parents so that's a start.

"John Ball b. 1670 m. Winifred Williams "A Forgotten Member of the Ball Family" by Christopher Johnston serialized in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. VII, pp. 440-441 and vol. VIII, pp. 80-83 (1900), reprinted in Genealogies of Virginia Families, vol. 1, pp. 23-27 (1981). ... John Ball's parentage must be considered as unknown."

http://www.ronulrich.com/rfuged/nti05584.htm

David Prins pointed out in a PM:

"David born 1686 has father died 1664.

Clearly from his profile, Captain William Ball, II, of "Millenbeck" did not die in 1664. He was a justice in 1680 and served in the Va House of Burgesses.

http://www.geni.com/merge/resolve/6000000000591496498 has several possibilities!"

FYI: I ended up in this area via a nice clean merge of the Ball and Heale clan (David Ball and Eleanor Ball), which were on the "Match" list for some profiles I "inherited" last year. I discovered this by looking around at David's tree.

Welcome to "Geni Virginia" ! I'm working on the Linton / Ball connection because I think last week I was working on a Linton / Peyton connection.

I would say more but was distracted by this quote about doing VA genealogy:

Virginia
Virginia was different (as were other colonies in the Chesapeake, such as Maryland and, later, the settlements on Albemarle Sound, which were the beginnings of North Carolina). Virginia developed a one-crop economy: tobacco, the production of which required many hands. The wealthy and well-connected of the colony acquired large acreages, and they imported thousands of indentured servants, mostly young men between the ages of 15 and 24, to work the farms. English servants composed at least 75% of the 120,000 emigrants to the Chesapeake during the 17th C, most were illiterate. Women constituted only about 10 to 20% of the servants. The Chesapeake area had few towns, few churches, and virtually no schools. Most housing consisted of windowless huts built of green lumber, measuring about 16 by 20 feet, with dirt floors. The climate was hazardous, and the mortality rate disastrous, largely due to typhoid, malaria, and dysentery. The colony survived, but normal family structures almost disappeared. More than 75% of children lost at least one parent before reaching the age of 18, and grandparents were virtually unknown. Lacking the influence of town and church authorities, and living in great poverty and ignorance along the creeks and rivers that carried tobacco to the Chesapeake ports, the transplanted Englishmen usually lost most of the civilization which they had brought from home within a generation. Records of births, deaths, and marriages were not maintained, diaries not kept, and histories not written, so that present-day historians and genealogists have a very difficult time learning and proving anything about the people who lived there (Fischer 1989 pp 207ff).

Not to confuse matters more, as I have no idea how to sort out the problem of who this John Ball's parents were. Just wanted to post a profile which I found at Find-A-Grave online, to see if anyone knows if/how this James Ball (with son John 1670-1722) might (or might not) connect? Here it is:

James Ball
Birth: 1620, England
Death: unknown, Virginia, USA

James Ball immigrated to Westmoreland-Stafford County, VA on 23 Nov 1654 with 19 other immigrants. He was Catholic and was transported by John Drayton. This was a time of great discrimination against Catholics in Maryland and Virginia, and oppressed Catholics tended to rely on each other. James chose immigrate to the most religiously tolerant area of Virginia which had been founded by an espoused Catholic, Giles Brent. Brent was recruiting Catholic colonists for his settlement in Virginia which, Brent hoped, would provide refuge from most of the religious persecution rampant in both England and colonial America at that time. Since most colonists emigrated from the port nearest their place of origin, it is likely that the original English home of immigrant James Ball was in the Severn River Valley area near Bristol, England.

James Ball married a lady named Catherine and they had at least one son named John Ball I (b. 1670).

In 1676, James Ball evacuated to the Brent Settlement in Aquia Creek, Stafford County, due to increasing tension with Native Americans. It is approximately six miles southwest of the area where John Ball acquired his second land grant in 1699/1700, on Dogue Run in present-day Fairfax County.

Source: "The Ball Family of the Potomac (1654-2004)" by Doris LeClerc Ball, PH.D. and George L. Ball, M.S.

Family links:
Children:
John Ball (1670 - 1722)

Burial:
Unknown

Carole that's this profile on Geni

James Ball, the immigrant

I don't know if the son John Ball profile is already on Geni - might well be.

Yes - here he is - and not as the son of James.

John Ball, of Stafford & Fairfax

Apparently a controversial area ... Read the notes.:)

While i have Ball researcher attention, I find it unlikely that a Puritan William Ball, of New Haven

Is the father of a Catholic Royalist

Colonel William Ball of Millenbeck

I would prefer to break the parent connection to the b 1614 William Ball of VA. What say you?

I posted several of those notes on the profiles just as further info...not saying that I have any connecting documents, as I don't! Don't know how to find linking original source records to document this line (without paying a fortune?) Does anyone have any they could share?

Carol "standard" records from Virginia in that time, if they existed at all, burned. There is however a wealth of information from historians in periodicals such as William & Mary Quarterly, and even newer, an active DNA project with established pedigrees. The DNA project has identified "immigrant line starters" for many of the American immigrant Balls.

I've been trying to make Master Profiles of the sourced Ball families and consolidate the duplicates into one so we're not all re inventing the wheel separately.:):). All the notes are preserved in the merge process and absolutely all uploaded documents, and I try and make a "summary" of the complicated family relationships in the overview, as well as "float" a curator note to assist in merging.

What i see now is too many attempts to make separate Ball lines into one - the one related to George Washington, naturally.:)

Here's a nice overview on the Ball family which links to the DNA study:

http://www.newenglandballproject.com/ui15.htm
6 Brothers Myth

Thanks so much for that overview Erica! As a "newbie" to trying to research my husband's ancestors this far back, I've been sooooo confused! I don't want to "create" ancestors where there are no accurate links... Some of my side of the family turned out to be black sheep and I accept them too; so, whether he turns out to be related to George Washington or not, it's all ok! I appreciate your help, and also would like to break connections if none really exist...as in the one to Wm. 1614 of VA. DNA sources would definitely be accurate.

I have researching the Ball Family for about 3 years and have found that the publication, "The Ball Family of the Potomac (1654-2004)" by Doris LeClerc Ball, PH.D. and George L. Ball, M.S., howbeit not perfect, is the best source of verifiable information available about my Ball Family. Although not absolute, I believe that Christopher James Ball, an indentured servant to John Drayton, was the first immigrant for my Ball Family line who arrived at Mason's Neck on the Potomac River in 1654. DNA studies seem to be the best proof of this. For sure, my Ball Family is not related directly to George Washington's mother, Mary Ball Washington. I have even found with reasonable certainty that Andrew Ball (birth circa 1595) who lived in the area of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England, was the father of Christopher James Ball. Bridgnorth is located in the Severn Valley of Western England. From James Ball came John Ball I, Moses Ball, Sr., Moses Ball Jr., and so on who were my direct ancestors. All of these lived either on the Potomac River or on tributaries thereof until Moses Ball, Jr. left the area in the early 1790s and moved to Hawkins County, in Northeast Tennessee. (Tennessee was a part of NC until 1796) Most other sources of verifiable information I have found has been, wills, birth and death certificates, family Bibles, court records, census info, Arlington, VA Historical Society, diary of George Washington (relating to Moses Ball, Sr.) and from a manuscript found in the Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg, VA, My Ball Family was not related to the William Ball family of Lancaster County, VA. I totally understand everyone's frustration with the information that you find on websites. Too many people, without doing their research for verifiable information, cut and paste erroneous information from one website to another. I am working on a book for my grand-kids and I am trying my best to be factual with what I write. I am not just interested in who begat who but am also tying it into history and geography so my grand-kids can learn not only who, but also where, when, why, and how our ancestors lived.

Good work, Ken! Why did he have two given names?

Erica, I do not know why but that is the way his name is listed when he was christened as a baby. I did find actual copies of the church record of this event. Following is the introduction to the chapter on James' father, Andrew, from the book I am writing for my grandchildren:
Verification of this ancestor is weak, but until proven otherwise, I have decided to include it: Andrew Ball (my 8th Great Grandfather) lived in the Severn River Valley of Mid-Western England, likely in or near Bridgnorth in the county of Shropshire. Andrew Ball married
Elizabeth and it’s believed they had four children: Richard Ball, born in 1618; Christopher James Ball, born in 1620; Ales Ball (daughter), born in 1625; and Joane Ball born in 1627. I am speculating that Andrew and Elizabeth may have moved, at least temporarily, to Westbourne, Sussex, England because their daughter Joane was christened there on December 9, 1627. Their other children were christened in Saint Mary Magdalene Anglican Church, Bridgnorth, Shropshire.