Annie's death in 1947

Annie Amelia (Turner) Ball passed away on 14 Apr 1947 at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, BC. Her Bowell Funeral Home record states that she died of chronic myocarditis. Myocarditis is a chronic inflammation of the heart muscle, usually caused by viral, bacterial, or fungal infections that reach the heart according to MedlinePlus (US National Library of Medicine).

As with some of the information provided by Granddad on Thomas' death certificate, there some discrepancies. Her address is given as Lee Street, White Rock, but I am not convinced that she had lived there for 33 of the 40 years she and Thomas had been in Canada. Likewise, her birth turns up in the birth registration indexes for Monmouthsire, Wales, not England (but don't forget that the Turners lived close to the Welsh/English border). As far as I am aware, she had only l sister (Alice (Turner) Boyle) and 1 brother (William Henry Turner) living back in the UK (in Cardiff and Swansea respectively) at the time of her death. Some of the names of her pallbearers are unfamiliar, but I suspect that they are related through her sisters who came to Canada with her - more mysteries to solve...

Cheers, K.

Thomas' death in 1941

According to the funeral record for my great-grandfather, Thomas Huxtable Ball died, at home, in White Rock BC, on 6 November 1941. He and Annie must have moved sometime earlier in the year to White Rock. The staff at the Vancouver Public Library - Special Collections were able to confirm that Thomas did not appear in the 1941 city directories for Vancouver and the lower mainland of BC. I suspect that they may have moved in with friends or family. His daughter Gwen and son-in-law, Jack Hynds, were living in White Rock at time.

The Bowell Funeral Home record for Thomas Ball showed that he died at his residence, given as "Lee Street, White Rock, BC". Interestingly, the certificate states that he last worked in 1937. His death was sudden, likely due to occlusion of the coronary artery (arteriosclerosis).

The pallbearers were Hugh Sigismund (son-in-law and husband of Margery), Jack Hynds (son-in-law and husband of Gwen), Arthur Nursey (future husband to daughter Evelyn), J. Hewlett, R.E. Steed, and A. Hewlett (likely relatives on Annie's side of the family). Thomas was survived by 1 son (Granddad - William H. Ball), 3 daughters (Mrs. J. Hynds, White Rock, Miss Evelyn Ball, Vancouver, and Mrs. H. Sigismund, New Westminster), 3 grandchildren (Dad, Bill and Gwen's son), and 2 sisters in England (actually, Wales - but more about that later....)

Cheers, K.

Bowell Funeral Home Records

As I mentioned in my last post, I found a wonderful database of Bowell Funeral Home Records on the local history section of the New Westminster Public Library website. It is easily searchable by surname or date and contains a wealth of information on deaths, burials and funeral services in New Westminster, BC. Kudos go to the staff of the Library for putting together this great set of records and for always being very helpful. They have a great information/reference service , which I have used often and would recommend to anyone looking for genealogical data from New Westminster.