Family Reunion: Ballard
Going four generations back to find another line
This surname can be found among my wife’s Sixteen great-great-grandparents. We have to go that far back to find our first Ballard, the paternal grandmother of my wife’s paternal grandmother, June (Shuffler) McCullough:
Virginia “Virgie” Ballard - 01 Feb 1889 - 04 Nov 1977
You might remember Virgie from The Ballad of Mrs. Steele a few weeks ago. She was the titular Mrs. Steele. Her parents were Isaac Emmerson Ballard (1859 - 1923) and Mary Ann Rupe (1867 - 1946). Her father was a former drayman who later became a railroad man, working as a brakeman on the trains that passed through Pacific Junction. Sometime after 1900, though, Virgie’s parents divorced, and in 1904, Isaac married a girl from Saint Joseph who was nearly half his age and moved with her to Oakland, California. It seems likely that Isaac was not at Frank and Virgie’s wedding in 1907.
Isaac E Ballard had five daughters with his first wife and a daughter and a son with his second wife, Edna May Purvis (1879–1972). His son, Ellis Emmett Ballard (1912–1987), had seven children - Virgie probably never knew these half-nephews and half-nieces, but they would be the only Ballard cousins to the four Shuffler boys.
Isaac’s parents were Isaac D Ballard (1817–1891) and Mary Ann Keith (1822–1894). They were married on 4 May 1841 in Vermillion County, Indiana, and they had ten children - of whom, Isaac E. was the second youngest. Their family moved from Indiana to Iowa in about 1845, and that is where the children were raised.
Isaac D Ballard’s father may have been a man named Simeon Ballard who appears in the 1840 Census in Vermillion County, Indiana, but I need to do more research to support that hint. Since Isaac D was born in Clinton County, Ohio, in 1817, it seems likely his parents came from elsewhere - but that is true of everyone, isn’t it?
As for Virgie Ballard’s four sisters, only one of them seems to have left children behind. Bessie Ballard married Daniel Aalberg and they had five: three daughters and two sons, Dan Jr. and Hobart. So if there are any Aalberg cousins out there, be sure to drop us a comment!