Death of Henry Ball (1863-1931)

Sadly, Henry Ball passed away, at age 68. He died at his residence, 96 Plassey Street, Penarth, on 8 December 1931. His occupation was given as “Dairyman”. The cause of death was given as “Bronchial asthma” and “Exhaustion”. The notation “No Pm” indicated that no post mortem was conducted. His son, William Henry Ball, who resided at 18 Cumberland Street, Cardiff, attended the death and also was the informant. The death was registered on 8 December 1931 and H.G. Belton is noted as the Registrar.

Henry’s address may ring a bell as it was the same house where the family was living at the time of the 1891 census:


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As you may recall, Plassey Street played a large role in the lives of Henry and his father, William Huxtable Ball, while they lived in Penarth. I found this image of a sunset on Plassey Street on Paul Dyer's Flickr site and thought that it seemed to say it all…:

Cheers, K.

Finding Henry Ball (1863-1931) in 1914

Henry and Anne must have moved by 1914. I was able to find them in the 1914 "Cardiff Directory" in the Cardiff and Suburban Names section. The 1914 Cardiff (Western Mail) directory was found on the Historical Directories website. The entry reads "Ball, Henry, dairyman, Llandough". Llandough, according to Wikipedia, is a village and southern suburb of Cardiff, in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. This is a map of of Llandough:


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The marker shows the location of their home in Llandough on Penlan Road.

I suspect that Henry and Anne moved back to the Penarth area, where they continued with the dairy business. Their home is the one with grey stone and white wood in the Google StreetView below:


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Cheers, K.

Henry Ball (1863-1931) ten years on...

The 1911 census of Wales (and England) was taken on Sunday April 2nd. By the time the census was taken, Henry and Anne had moved to 5 Railway Terrace, Dinas Powys, Glamorgan, a short distance west of Penarth (2.6 kms actually):


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This is an aerial view of the street where they lived:


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Perhaps they had moved to be closer to John's farm in St. Andrews or found that Henry's business interests had drawn them away from Penarth, I am not sure.

The census shows Henry to be a dairyman, age 47, Ann, housekeeper, age 43, Lily May, daughter, age 16, assistant in dairy, Lettice Charlotte, daughter, age 14, student, Doris Charlotte, age 13, student, Gladys Margaret, age 10, student, and a new addition to the family, Irene Winnie, daughter, also a student.

Ann's father, Henry Evans, a widower, retired, age 74, was also living with the family. William Henry, the eldest child, had moved out by this time - more on him later.

Cheers, K.

Henry Ball (1863-1931), marriage and a growing family

The year 1891 was a watershed in the life of Henry Ball. While recorded as living with his parents in April 1891, Henry seemed to embark on some big life changes - namely marrying Annie Evans in late 1891. Annie was born about 1868 and was from Cwmavon, Glamorgan, a small hamlet east of Swansea, close to Port Talbot. Their marriage was registered in the 4th quarter (Oct-Dec).

By the time of the 1901 census, Henry and Annie had a family of 5 children: William Henry, born in 1893, Lily Mae, born in 1895, Lettice Charlotte, born in 1897, Doris Charlotte, born in 1898, and Gladys Margaret, born in early 1901. They lived at 96 Plassey Street, Penarth. This is a Google map of their address:


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And this is a street view of the house:


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If you look across the street and down a little bit, you can see the Plassey Street Baptist Church, which played a big part in the life of Henry's father, William Huxtable Ball.


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I suspect that Henry and Annie were married at this church, but will need to do some more digging to confirm it.

Cheers, K.

Henry Ball and the 1891 Wales Census

In 1891, on the 5th of April, when the census was taken in Wales, Henry Ball, age 27, was found to be living with his parents, William and Charlotte, in Penarth. They resided at 54 Windsor Road as shown on this Google map:


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Both father and son are listed as "dairyman". A dairyman could be a worker or owner of a dairy farm or a seller of dairy products. Given that Henry was living with his father in town, I suspect their dairy business was the latter - seller of dairy products. Knowing that older brother John was farming in St. Andrews Major, I suspect that Henry and William may have sold milk and other products from John's farm and perhaps others. Did they have a formal business? How successful were they? Alas, more clues to discover..

Cheers, K.

Henry Ball (1863-1931)

Henry was the third eldest son of William and Charlotte Ball. His birth was registered in Gower, Glamorgan in the last quarter of 1863. The family was likely still living in Scurlage Castle, Llanddewi, which is shown on the map below:


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This is a street view of the village:


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The first time Henry shows up in the census is 1881. (Parts of the Glamorgan census for 1871 are missing - along with the Ball family). He is shown as "Henery", age 17, and is listed as a rural messenger. Henry is living with his parents, sister Charlotte and youngest brother, Thomas in Scurlage Castle, Llanddewi.

More to follow.
Cheers, K.

Devon Family History Society

First off, I want to apologize for my lack of posts recently. I've been battling bronchitis for the past month and am now finally starting to feel like I'm back in the land of the living. I will endeavour to be more diligent with the frequency of my posts.

I was happy to receive my copy of the Devon Family Historian in the mail today. Its appearance was a wonderful reminder that family history or genealogy societies are a great resource in terms of expertise, local-on-the-ground information and support. While I haven't come across Ball family researchers working on my particular branch of the family, I have been helped by so many DFHS members via their e-mail (also known as 'mailing') list, website and the volunteers who staff their resource library called the "Tree House" in Exeter.

As I settle in to enjoy my copy of the Devon Family Historian, I would encourage researchers to join the local family history or genealogy society in the geographic area where their ancestors lived. You can really tap into great people, resources and local knowledge that you may not be able to access as a non-member, so far removed from your ancestors' county, state, province or country.

Cheers, K.