Monday Madness - Judson Ball

Judson Ball was born ca 1820 and depending on whose census record you look at, he was born in either Ohio or Vermont.  This is the beginning of my frustration in researching the origins and family of whence he came. 

The earliest record I have is a deed where he purchased 40 acres of land from Abram J. Shaver and wife Polly in Van Buren County, Michigan during the month of September, 1839.  The 1840 census does not list him.  Possibly he was living with another family?  Maybe he was out of the area at the time.

In December of 1844 Judson marries Caroline Webber, daughter of John H. Webber and Levina Kimball in Van Buren and subsequently children are born to them:  Amelia, Sarah, Ellis Judson, Victoria and Emma Frances.  Amelia and Victoria marry German brothers; William and Augusta Kemeno and both families produced several children between them.  Sarah and Emma were married but did not give birth.  Ellis Judson who is my great, great grandfather, with his wife Evora had two children that survived to adulthood.  Their story will be a future post as it is a tragic one.

Judson is listed both in the 1850 and 1860 censuses and during these years also bought and sold land in Van Buren and Kalamazoo Counties frequently and made profits.

By the time 1867 comes around, Judson takes sick with "congestion and chills" and dies, this event is recorded in the Kalamazoo County death register with no real clue to who he really is.

I have been to Salt Lake City and dug into the records, especially the deeds trying to find anyone that could be a family member with no real clue to of a relationship.  One idea I had: Ellis says over and over that he was born in Kankakee County, Illinois so I even took my research over there to try find out why Judson and Caroline would be over there in 1855.  Also all the BALL families have been looked at and ruled out for now.  One challenge is that he lived a short life, he was alone and young when he ventured out, he died and no tombstone can be found and he left no probate record.

I have exhausted any thoughts and avenues that I could possibly come up with!  I even checked the county in Ohio that Caroline Webber and her family came from.

There has to be a family living at that time that is missing a sibling!   Who is his family and where did he come from?   One thing I know for sure, I will need to make a field trip and go to this area of Michigan and dig. 

Tombstone Tuesday

Phebe (Woodard) Freeman

Aged 71 years, 6 months, 6 days

Died April 20, 1887

Buried at Salt River Cemetery, Coe Township, Isabella County, Michigan

Born in Quebec Province possibly Sherbrook area

Daughter of Silas Woodard

FamilySearch Labs

If you have Michigan roots, I highly recommend the website, FamilySearch Labs. This is the where the transcribed data is accessed from the LDS project called FamilySearch Indexing. FamilySearch has been scanning their microfilms, then the records are indexed and we can then view the actual images online through this site at http://labs.familysearch.org/. Michigan vital records are available from Birth records beginning 1867 up to 1902, Marriages 1868-1925 and Deaths 1867-1897. The search engine is excellent with different ways to "drill" down without too many hits and has a great soundex as well. I urge all of you to please go the the site, http://www.familysearchindexing.org/en/home/home.jsf?pname='homeTab' and sign up to volunteer in this endeavor. Even if you can only complete one batch a night or in a spare moment, the more records indexed the more will be posted and available for us all. I have been thrilled to have located many ancestors through the site and found information totally unknown to me. There are many other records available as well and also the U.S. Censuses. Give it a try you never know what you will come up!