Artificial Intelligence and Genealogy

Alright, listen up folks! I’ve been going on this wild ride delving into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and its super cool applications in genealogy. You won’t believe the research frenzy I’ve been on, trying to uncover all the latest AI advancements for genealogical research. Guess what? Even WordPress, has hopped on the AI train, letting me whip up this awesome message. Can you wrap your head around that? It’s a game-changer, making me realize I need to step up my AI game too. So, let’s gear up and embrace the AI revolution, folks! It’s time to ride that futuristic wave!

Looking at this subject, I’ve seen lots of folks digging into it, researching and using it for genealogy research. It’s still in its early days, so there are some kinks to work out. But hey, AI is advancing every single day! In the genealogy world, it’s used as a handy tool or assistant for genealogists. Cool stuff!

Today I found this cool genealogy site called MORI, which uses AI to power its features. It’s still in its Beta stage, but you can already join for free! Later on, they might introduce paid subscriptions with even more AI features and DNA testing. Can’t wait to dive in and explore my family history with MORI.

Some cool stuff you’ll find there includes voice and document transcription, translation of documents, and photo enhancement. But hey, keep in mind that you still gotta double-check the AI’s output for accuracy. These features can truly save you loads of time and spare your poor eyes from straining to decode messy documents or translate foreign language texts.

One thing MORI is trying to do is to bring together family members and those who are interested in expanding the Ballard family tree. I know there are many people out there who are researching this branch of the Ballard family, and it would be great if everyone could join forces and contribute their knowledge. Instead of struggling on our own to research and document this family, we could benefit from collaborating and sharing insights. So let’s come together and make our family tree even more awesome! If you still want to fly solo that’s okay too.

If you’d like to check out the site here is the link: https://www.mori.co/

Society For The Sons Of The American Revolution

I became a member of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) recently. My chapter is the William C. Corum Chapter in Liberty, MO. Soon after, I became a volunteer for the Patriot Research System (PRS) of the National Society Sons of the American Revolution (NSSAR). The PRS is a combination of the previous NSSAR Patriot and Graves Registry (Online), NSSAR Revolutionary War Graves Registry (Book and CD), information from the NSSAR Patriot Index CD (2002), and additional information and updates from various State Grave Registry Databases.

I’ve been busy working in the PRS, concentrating on my Patriot ancestors, William, Thomas and Philip Ballard Jr.

What I have accomplished in the PRS:
1.) Updated biography and added headstone photos for William Ballard. Patriot # 108020
2.) Updated service information, added personal information, and added a biography for Thomas Ballard. Patriot # 343407
3.) Added Philip Ballard Jr. to the PRS system as a Patriot, provided documentation and added a biography. Patriot # 107997.

I would encourage anyone to join the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) or Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) if you believe you have an ancestor that served on the Patriot side or provided support in the cause of American Revolution. If your interested in joining you can contact the National Society Sons of the American Revolution here, https://www.sar.org/ or the Daughters of the American Revolution here, https://www.dar.org/ . They will provide guidance in the application process.

In many cases you may already have a patriot ancestor in the SAR or DAR systems and streamlines the application process. As an example, William Ballard is in both systems.

Ballard DNA Lineage Group III news

Recently there has been a development in the FamilyTreeDNA, often referred to as FTDNA, Ballard group III. The BigY, as it’s referred to, shows Eaton families with Ballard Lineage III YDNA. The BigY has discovered a common Eaton ancestor and several surnames in the direct YDNA line. It currently looks like it goes back to England around 1540 CE to 1630 CE. The SNP Tree of this group shows 29% Ballard, 29% Eaton and a few more. 58% Ballard – Eaton, 42% other. This looks to be around the time that this Ballard family line broke off from the Eaton family line.

Because there are only a handful of male Ballard’s that have taken the BigY test, it is put simply, stuck there. The more male Ballard’s that test in BigY, fathers, brothers, cousins, the more detailed we get. Currently the Ballard DNA Project, https://www.familytreedna.com/public/ballard?iframe=ycolorized, is in a search for whom the common Eaton ancestor is.

Millwright and Fuller’s

While research being done on this Ballard family, it is becoming more clear about what several of them did in order to support themselves and their families. In other words, their occupation.

Just like current day, not everyone was a farmer or plantation owner. Yes, they did have to farm and hunt the land they owned, this was to provide food for themselves though.

It has become clear that Elijah Sr. and his sons were Millwright’s. They were quite successful in this occupation and he was considered a pioneer Millwright in what is now Kanawha Co., West Virginia. He built several horse and water powered mills of several types, grist mills, weaving and fulling mills.

The Millwright was America’s first industrial inventor. He was builder, banker, businessman and host to the countryside. When highways were no wider than today’s bridle paths, the first good roads were built to the mills. Where there was a mill site, there was a nucleus for a town. America had so many Millvilles, Milltowns, Milfords and other towns named after original mills, that the Post Office Department sponsored the changing of many such names to stop the confusion.

The careless Millwright’s life was a short one, and whether he was lifted aloft and thrown from a windmill, hit in the head by a spar or caught by his hand or clothing in the gigantic gears and ground up, his everyday work had to be as exacting and careful. Elijah Ballard Jr. was in fact killed while building a mill in Indiana.

Curtis and Larkin at one time were Fuller’s, likely working together.

Fulling was one in a sequence of important processes involved in the production of woolen cloth, and fulfilled two functions that were necessary for the proper finishing of the cloth, namely scouring, removing grease and dirt, consolidating the fibers of the fabric. Woven cloth straight from the loom has a rather open, loose texture and the woven threads needed closing or tightening. The fulling process intended to consolidate and thicken the structure of the fabric by knitting the fibers together more thoroughly and by shrinking them, which transformed the cloth from a loose ‘net’ of threads into a compact, tight, textural whole.

The pounding of the cloth by the stocks of a fulling mill created a great deal of noise and, along with the sound of the force of the water, a fulling mill could be heard from some distance. The occupation was very unpleasant and could be a dangerous one , the momentum of the machinery and if any clothing caught in the stocks, then a serious injury was the likely result.

Fulling mill. 17th-century artwork of a waterwheel (left) being used at a fulling mill. Fulling is a step in fabric production that involves pounding cloths to clean them. This engraving is plate 72 from an edition of ‘Theatrum machinarum novum’, a work by the German architect and engineer Georg Andreas Boeckler (1617-1687). This work included mechanical designs for mills and pumps powered by weights, water and wind.

Flags of our Forefathers

Three sons of Philip Ballard served in the Revolutionary War. They were William, Thomas and Philip Jr. They left their home in Orange Co., Virginia and first joined the Culpeper Minutemen.

The Culpeper Minutemen Flag

Culpeper Minutemen Flag

Culpeper, Fauquier and Orange counties, forming one district, raised a cadre of 350 men, 150 men from Culpeper, 100 from Orange and 100 from Fauquier, called the Culpeper Minute Men. Organized July 17, 1775, under a large oak tree in “Clayton’s old field” (later known as Catalpa Farm).

The Committee of Safety commissioned Lawrence Taliafero, of Orange, to be the Colonel; Edward Stevens, of Culpeper, to be the Lieutenant Colonel; and Thomas Marshall of Fauquier to be the Major of this Battalion. They also commissioned ten Captains for the Companies which were to make up the Battalion, among them were: John Jamieson, then Clerk of Culpeper County and a member of the Committee of Safety; Philip Clayton; James Slaughter; George Slaughter; and Capt. McClanahan, A Baptist minister, who regularly preached to his troops. (It was the custom then to put all the Baptists in one Company, for they were among the most strenous supporters of liberty, The Methodists went into another, according to the wishes of the Committee of Safety which recommended that the different religious denominations each organize companies of their own kind.)

They adopted uniforms consisting of hunting shirts of strong, brown lines, dyed with an extract of the leaves of trees (probably the broad of oak leaves). On the breast of each shirt was worked in large white letters the words: “LIBERTY OR DEATH.” A wag of the times said that this was too severe for him, but that he would enlist if they could change the motto to “Liberty or be Crippled.”

Culpeper Minutemen Uniform illustration

Their flag had a rattlesnake with 13 rattles, coiled in the center, ready to strike. Underneath it were the words: “DON’T TREAD ON ME.” On either side were the words: “LIBERTY OR DEATH.” And at the top “THE CULPEPER MINUTE MEN.”

The Minute Men took part in the Battle of Great Bridge, the first Revolutionary battle on Virginia soil.

On November 8th The Committee of Safety ordered the Commander-in-Chief of the Virginia forces, Col. Patrick Henry, to discharge the remainder of the Culpeper Minute Battalion from duty at Headquarters. The married men were discharged and single men joined other companies. Col. Taliaferro led half the Battalion home while Lt. Col. Stevens remained to lead five companies to Norfolk under Col. Woodford of the 2nd Virginia.

Minute battalions throughout the state lost officers and men to the newly forming continental regiments as well as the Virginia State Line in 1776. On 17 December 1776 the House of Delegates passed an ordinance abolishing the minute battalions.

Grand Union Flag

Grand Union Flag

The Grand Union Flag is considered to be the first national flag of the United States. Adopted on 3 December 1775.

William being one of the married men returned home in Orange Co., Virginia. Thomas and Philip Jr. remained and was part of one of the companies under Col. Woodford of the 2nd Virginia.

Case of the Three Philip Ballard

For many there is great confusion in the case of the Philip Ballard’s listed on the 1782 Orange County Census. Which Philip is which, especially “the younger”?

It is important to know that in the colonial era it was written that way in order to differentiate between individuals, they wrote it as Senr, Jnr and the younger. The Senior, Junior and the younger were by no means indicating that the person listed as such was a relative of the individuals. This was a indication of age, Senior was older than Junior and the younger, meant that they were younger than the Junior. In modern day books it is written Sr. and Jr., which make it easy for people to assume the two are related.

In order to be counted on the Tax List as Tithable it had to be a male 16 years or older.

This is my case in an attempt to separate them;

The 3 Philip’s listed in question are:

Philip Ballard

Philip Ballard Jr.

Philip Ballard, the younger

On the 1782 document, List of Taxable property taken by Thomas Barbour Gentleman in Orange County April 1782, it list’s William, Thomas, Thomas Jr., Philip, Philip Jr., Moreman and Elijah.

In the book, Orange County Heads of Families – Virginia 1785, pg. 97, List of William Bell. It lists Philip, Philip Jr. and Marman (typo should be Moreman)

In the book FIRST CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES 1790, Records of the State Enumerations: 1782 – 1795, pub. 1908, pg. 39, William, Thomas Jr., Philip, Philip Jr. and Philip the younger are listed.

The Virginia volume of this series of census books is a compilation of summary tables for population and buildings, population counts by counties for 1782, 1783, 1784, and 1785, a list of the names of the heads of families for Greenbriar County in 1783-1786, and counts of the inhabitants and property of the City of Richmond for 1782. The Federal census schedules of the state of Virginia for 1790 are missing, the lists of the state enumerations made in 1792, 1783, 1784, and 1785 have been substituted.

Houston we have a problem…

The disparity between the two is obvious. Thomas, Moreman and Elijah are missing and Philip, the younger added. Where did Philip, the younger come from? He is no where to be found on the 1782 Tax List by Thomas Barbour or 1790 Tax List by Francis Cowherd documents.

Philip Ballard – c. 1706, records support that this is Philip the senior.

Philip Ballard Jr. – c. 1757, records support that this is Philip the seniors son.

Philip Ballard, the younger – If a Philip, the younger wasn’t a transcription error and existed it would have had to have been Elijah Ballard Sr.’s son Philip. He would have been of the age to have been counted on the 1790 Tax List and as the younger.

First an introduction

I first began my search in the world of Heraldry. Like many I believed that my family line had a Coat of Arms assigned to the surname. This turned out to be a falsehood. A Coat of Arms is not assigned to a family surname, it is attached to the individual patriarch of that family. Heraldry, in my opinion is what started the world of modern day genealogy. In order for a individual to receive a Coat of Arms the family line had to be researched by the royal court’s heralds, often times visitations to the individual were preformed. Today, the first picture you see in many a family tree is a Coat of Arms that is assigned to the surname. The author of a work that appropriates a family’s arms in this manner is irresponsible, and the work immediately suspect, because usually there is no family connection at all. It is done in a vain and romanticized attempt to make a connection to royalty or landed gentry.

This lead me to the field of genealogy to research and get a accurate picture of my Ballard family line, which goes back to Philip Ballard of Spotsylvania. Having been involved in this as a amateur I have discovered like a few others that there are many, many falsehoods and speculations in the family trees of casual users that have been perpetuated down through the years. I like to think of them as “point and clickers”, someone that follows others blindly by accepting the general narrative of the family line without having ever actually read or researched the documentation or source provided.

It is my hope by doing this blog that I am able to provide good information and straighten out certain aspects of this Ballard line and help researchers, as well as researchers helping me, to document the truth and real stories of our ancestors.