The New England Ball Project is a modified "one-name" study that attempts to identify as many "Ball" surname persons resident in New England at some time between circa 1630 and the present, to link them in families, ideally headed by "Ball" immigrant ancestors to North America. The intent is to document the sources for all names, relationships, dates, places, and events that that make up the database in the Project and to publish the families in a way that all have access to the results without cost.
While there is no prohibition on tracking Ball descendants of other surnames, the focus of the Project will be on the Ball surname and additions to the trees beyond the Ball surname will be done on an ad-hoc basis (generally because someone else has donated the material). Similarly, the Project includes tracking Ball surname descendants that migrate outside of New England, but the level of primary record detail for those cases will likely be less than for New England events and typically only be supported by census records, primary data available on-line, and secondary sources.
NAVIGATING THE WEBSITE
All of the people on the website are listed in alphabetical order by surname, then given name, and then by birth date. Go to the Master Index and scan down for the range of names that likely includes the person you are searching for; click on that line and then scroll down to the target given name. Click on the target name to go to that person's page. If you are only interested in people at a specific place, click on the tab that says "Place Index", Scroll down and click on an underlined place and go to a list of all people that reference that place. Similarly, click on any photo in the Photo Gallery tab to go to that person's page.
Is your Ball line missing data here? We would welcome information on your branch of the family and their photos. Click the "Add & Correct" tab for instructions.
OTHER TOPICS
If you you find your family branch contained on this website PLEASE CONTACT ME AT THE EMAIL AT THE BOTTOM OF ANY PAGE AND SEND ME ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. If you find following the links from person to person cumbersome, click email me and request a report crafted to suit your needs for an easier way to compare data.
We need more Ball-surname candidates for testing; see details on the DNA tab to see if you qualify for a free test.
More photos of non-living people on the website are needed. Photos are alphabetized by last name, then first name. There are several famous people in the "photo gallery", including a US President and a British Prime Minister and some movie stars.
BIBLE RECORDS AND BIBLE AVAILABLE
Are you a descendant of William Henry Ball and Mary Fremoyle Sweetser of New Hampshire, perhaps through their daughter Mary that married Andrew Quero? I have high quality scans of the family pages that I can email to anyone interested.
Are you a relation of Myra E. Ball and Ammon Lee of Michigan (who had no children)? I have their family Bible waiting for a relative to claim and high quality scans of the family pages that I can email to anyone else interested.