For someone who doesn't understand or follow family tree/family history, each person has FOUR major family lines to follow ---which expand from there. My four family names are: my mother's mother and father, and my father's mother and father. SO, my four lines are: BRUCE, BALLARD, WITT, and BANKS. I have done quite a bit of research on the Bruce side (due to available family notes and info). Recently, through a newly found cousin, I connected more info on the Ballard side. Both the Bruce's and Ballard's settled in Virginia. This past weekend --l entered lots and lots of info on my family tree program (Reunion) on the computer. In this quest, I had a big and wonderful surprise. Here's what happened..
BRUCE History
-My mother was Edith Marguerite Ballard (1900-1991).-My grandparents (Mom's parents) were Ida Elizabeth Bruce and James Franklin Ballard. Ida was born in 1874 and died in 1904.
-My great grandparents (Ida's parents) were Daniel Hoge Bruce and Martha Matilda Carr. Daniel was born in 1846 and died in 1915.
- My great-great grandparents (Daniel's parents) were Joshua Henderson Bruce and Margaret Anderson Hoge. Joshua was born in 1825 and died in 1904. -My 3 great grandparents (Joshua's parents) were James Bruce and Elizabeth Justice. James was born in 1802 and died in 1876.
-My 4 great grandparents (James's parents) were Rev. Joshua Bruce and Sarah Hearn. Rev. Joshua was born in 1778 and died in 1865.
-My 5 great grandparents (Rev. Joshua's parents) were William George Bruce and Annie Nancy Ballard. William was born in 1752 and died in 1813.
NOW----do you see the name of my 5 great grandmother?????? Her name was Annie Nancy BALLARD. Now--look at the top name: Edith Marguerite BALLARD (my mother). I thought there may be a connection between these two Ballard's and guess what????? I found it--while researching this past weekend. Now--I don't know how many of you enjoy doing Family History, but finding a connection like this is totally awesome to a person like me working on Genealogy. To connect two of your four family lines is amazing!!!!! Here's how the Ballards and Bruces connect together.
BALLARD History
-My grandfather (mother's father) was James Franklin Ballard. James was born on in 1861 and died in 1936.
-My great grandparents (James' parents) were William Alexander Ballard and Adeline Frances Doss. (He later married Martha Susan Martin). William Alexander was born in 1831 and died in 1903.
-My great great grandparents (William Alexander's parents) were Samuel Goolsby Ballard and Nancy Clements. Samuel was born in 1808 and died in 1875.
-My 3 great grandparents (Samuel's parents) were John Ballard and Nancy Goolsby. John was born in 1772 and died in 1850.
-My 4 great grandparents (John's parents) were Bland William Ballard and Frances Shiflett. (Francis was Bland's 2nd wife. The first wife --name unknown, gave him 9 children and the 2nd wife gave him 6 children. Whew!!!) Bland was born in 1734 and died in 1809. -My 5 great grandparents (Bland's parents) were Thomas Ballard and Susannah Hesson. Thomas was married 3 times: a Sarah, Susannah Hesson and Mary Powers. He had a total of 7 children. Thomas was born in 1717 and died in 1782.-My 6 great grandparents (Thomas' parents) were Capt. John Ballard and Elizabeth Bland. Capt. John was born in 1693 and died in 1745.
Okay--you say, so where's the connection????? I'm glad you asked ( IF you are still reading this blog--HA), so here it is:
My 6th great grandfather (Capt. John Ballard) had a brother named William. William married a woman named Philadelphia Lee. One of their 7 children was named Philip Ballard. Philip married Ann Nancy Johnson. One of their 13 children was named Thomas Ballard. Thomas Ballard married Elizabeth Smith. One of their 5 children was named ANNIE NANCY BALLARD. Wah-lah---there it is!!!!!!!
You got all of this?????? (See why I love detail work???? ha)... Here's an easier way for me to explain the connection: My 6 great grandfather, Capt. John Ballard, had a brother named William. William's great granddaughter, Annie Nancy Ballard, married William Bruce. Annie and William are my 5 Great Grandparents on the Bruce side. Neat, huh????
Sorry I bored you with all of this ---but I was just too excited about the Bruce/Ballard connection NOT to share it!!!!!! If you bothered to read all of this, I give you a BIG Kudos---just for humoring me!!!!!
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Since genealogy may be boring to many of you, I'll add a couple of pictures of some gorgeous roses from our yard.
FIRST PRIZE
BELLA'ROMA
Have a wonderful day!
Hugs,
38 comments:
not bored at all, ms. betsy! i got excited by each line, although admittedly, i have to read this again to get through all the ballads and bruces! my goodness, such detailed work! congratulations! and what do your sons say to all this? hugs and love, cherie
Betsy! Genealogy is so important...and it's great that you took the time to trace family members...My husband does a lot of that also. Ancestry. com and Genealogy.com are both great sites to help out when investigating the past :) love ya.
Hey Cherie...I enjoyed that visit you shared with us! I have a daughter named Cherie...spelled just like your name. That's neat. I see you enjoy life like I do...and like Betsy does. (Isn't Betsy so much fun? She is from Big Stone Gap, Va. where I lived, also). Look forward to many more of your posts. Have a blessed day!
My sister has done a lot of research on our family tree. I found it fascinating to learn about our family history.
Thanks for inviting me to stop and smell your roses, Betsy... there beautiful :D
I don't find it boring at all, Betsy. On the contrary, I think it's exciting that you found that connection between two of your four family lines. Doing family history work is a lot like being a detective. Looks like you did some fine detective work!
Your roses are exquisite.
Betsy that is so cool you can trace you mom's family back so far. One of my cousins on my dads side of the family has been doing this but no one can seem to find out anything about my dads mother. Nothing. No family history, its like she never existed. Lots of info from my grandfathers side though.
Beatuful rose. =)
I wasn't bored, I just couldn't keep up. I have always had trouble putting lables(great=greats, etc.) on family members which is why my own geneology is so vague. I can only get the big pieces, not the connecting pieces.My mother was good at it and just wish she had written it all down like you are.
Do admire what you have managed to come up with. Your family will love you for doing all the work.
I'm excited for you Betsy that you are finding all this info out. I don't delve into genealogy much but I know lots of people love doing that.
Interesting post, Betsy. My second daughter is very in to Geneology and gets so excited when she finds a new link or new name or whatever goes. She always thinks she is boring me but I find it fascinating too. You are really lucky to have so much information. MB
Betsy: Very nice geneolgy you have worked up. I love you two roses.
Great information! As always I love your flower pictures. Miss hearing from you!
Well done, Betsy! I have some of the information on my father's family. I never did get too carried away as I have no children of my own and the line (so to speak) ends here. But I love hearing what other folks have found. Interesting stuff. Beautiful roses, too.
How exciting!!! My daughter says she lays awake at nights sometimes trying to put all the parts and pieces in place. She has called me more than once some discovery she has made.
In our family I knew that one of my great aunts through marriage had the same last name as my husbands, but it wasn't till my daughter became involved in geneology that we discovered that she was also a relative through my husband's side of the family. Kind of a neat discovery. However, where we live in Indiana, there was a large settlement of German Lutheran families. Often as you start taking to someone you find that your relatives started out in the same part of the country and that you have distant relatives.
Hooray for connections! I know you were very excited!
I love, love, love genealogy. Vol Fan's eyes tend to glaze over when I come home from a day of research with exciting news. He also doesn't think it's very funny when I tease him about his tree not forking!
Have you ever visited the East TN History Center in Knoxville? They have an outstanding collection! What program do you use to keep your tree organized?
How interesting Betsy. And like the saying goes..it is a small world!!!!
I envy your dedication to this. I have issues with my family tree because of so many divorces/remarries...it gets sticky with not only the family tree, but the sticks too. :)
Family and history are so important. If we have the opportunity and ability it is amazing how families connect. We to have a double line way back in my dad's side. 2 brothers marrying 2 sisters creating "double cousins" of sorts. Amazing wonderful story of family connections and love.
For those that don't know their families, family trees start as seeds so for those adopted etc... The seed is now planted.
I love your photo's Gods Beauty is Awe-some! Love and Light, Nina P.
Your excitment is catching.Glad you are having so much fun.The roses give me pleasure each time they show up on my computer screen.Thanks for sharing all the beauty.
Blessings,Ruth
Oh my goodness....girl, that's a lot of sleuthing and very impressive. Great job!!! It's so exciting. I've done work on my dad's side--a few years ago. It's addicting. So....does that make you a double-daughter of the revolution? :-D
Not at all boring! I really enjoyed reading about your investigation. I love doing family history research. I think it's fun and exciting, but it's also very time-consuming. All the online resources have made it so much easier to accumulate massive amounts of information, too! It can be a little overwhelming at times.
I LOVE genealogy. I've been working on my lines as well as those of friends since 1967. To me, genealogy makes history come alive. I, like you, have a couple of lines that connect together. My Richards line makes me crazy since they keep intermarrying all over the place! I'm wondering if your Bruce line goes back to Robert the Bruce of Scotland. You need to check into that!
Geneology is fascinating and at times confusing. It's great when you can make connections!
Your roses are absolutely beautiful.
Have a great day.
Sunny :)
This was fascinating. I love learning about my family's history but must admit I don't have your patience for tracing it over the years. I loved the roses, both were beauties! Have a great day!
I know how exciting it is to work on your family tree. I hunted for 2 months on Ancestry trying to find a connection for my mom's family. When I found it I literally yelled out loud and tears ran down my face. My husband was so happy for me he started crying, too. Your roses are so beautiful.
that is so interesting, I love your flower photos also.
Gill in Canada
We should ALL take an interest in our family history.
Where do you get the energy?
My grandfather gave me a notebook of his remembrances of Munday family genealogy, and I hope to get around to the "Family Tree" project some day. Thanks for the inspiration!
Very impressive, Betsy! Good job. :)
I know geneology is alot of hard work, time consuming, and we need awesome determination too!
I gave up but indeed someday just might begin once again.
Cool connection of the 2 families way back. You did a lot of work to ferret that out, but I'm sure it was fun to find it.
I've done a little geneology. Someday, when I get around to it, I hope to do more.
Beautiful roses!
Don't you just love a genealogy happy dance? That's what I call it when I make a connection or burst one of my brick walls.
Congrats; Looks like you had a very productive weekend.
Wow. What a find! I'm horrible at genealogy!
I know putting together a family genealogy is a lot of work! My aunt has been working on ours this past year! You've definitely uncovered a lot of information - how fun!!
Oh my!! We know several people steeped in genealogy and it fascinates me..yes, I read All of it and my head is spinning...hehehe
Sitting and listening to all of this is a good thing...one friend that is involved in it is also a grand storyteller so it turns it all into a motion picture..LOL
Thanks for dropping by...Miss Morgan has us well trained! We give her everything a Queen doggie should have..hahaha She really is like having a live baby (fur) doll. :0)
See ya,
Steph
Amazing work! Congratulations on finding something so interesting! I have started something like this a few times, but then life takes over and I get away from it for a while.
Beautiful photos as well.
It is so wonderful how much you have learned about your lineage. I know very little of mine.
Your roses are gorgeous.
spirithelpers
Wow, that's got to be a lot of work. Congrats on all you have found. (and I see a Smith stuck in there too. ;)
How cool to find that connection! Must have been exciting for you, Betsy. Your roses are gorgeous too! :D
Beautiful rosesl....and as far as the family connection...I sure understand your being excited. It is fun hearing about your family.
NOTE to some cousin of mine named BOGGS --who sent me an email... Somehow I lost the email ---so please email me again... So sorry!!! I do want to talk to you --if I can catch up with you!
Betsy
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