Memories of Granddad (William Huxtable Ball, 1903-1971)

These are my memories of Granddad and stories told to us by Dad.

Dad always spoke of Granddad's sharp sense of humour, love of laughter, and his love of the sea. Granddad loved to tell stories, especially funny ones. I remember the telescope in the big picture window in my grandparent's house on Nanoose Bay. Granddad could tell you the kind of ship was sailing by, what it was carrying and its registration. He would point out all the mountains and tell you about how he used to travel up and down the coast to small communities, making sure that everyone had enough gasoline and oil to keep houses warm and boats moving. He could spot the movements of whales in the bay and tell you to wait and watch for the spout of water to appear. He was faithful viewer of Coronation Street - my first memories of the show were watching it with him.

However, he never could remember my name or my sister's (our given names both begin with K, as did one of our cousins) - so we were invariably called "Miss Milligicuddy". In fact, Granddad was, by Dad's recollection, not any good at remembering names and dates. He had many friends and acquaintances named 'Joe' as he could never remember their names. Granddad messed up Dad's birth registration by giving the wrong month (later corrected) and forgetting to include "McPhee" as a middle name on the first and second trips to the registry office, which was bit of a sore point between my grandparents for a while. I suppose that he could be forgiven as Dad was quite ill at birth and very sick for the first few years of his life with asthma. Granddad was a Freemason and, like many people of his day, viewed Catholicism with distrust. When Dad attended Gonzaga University, a Jesuit college in Spokane, Washington, on a sports scholarship, Granddad was not particularly amused. I don't think that he would have like to have known that Dad often attended Mass out of respect to Father Murray, a mentor and educator.

My few memories of Granddad are from the last years of his life, when he was ill was cancer. On our visits, I can remember a frail man, who always had a smile, loved to tousle your hair, and tell you funny stories about your father growing up. Despite the state of his health, he always was a dapper man, hat jauntily perched on his head. He would insist that Dad take him, my sister and me up to the landfill in the evening so we could watch the bears rummaging around the garbage. I thought it was pretty neat to have a grandfather who had his own 'zoo' down the road. He loved it when you brought him little creatures from the beach. He would explain where and how they lived and how the tides affected all sea life. I apparently called crabs "craps" as a young child and Dad said that Granddad would ask me about my crab hunting on the beach, trying not to laugh too hard when I said "craps" (of course, he never corrected my pronunciation....). He was the director of the clam digs on the beach, showing my sister and I where to dig with our little plastic shovels. We never seemed to find many, but had a wonderful time with a grandfather that we lost too soon.

Please feel free to add your own memories or to correct any errors in my recollections....it has been quite a while since Granddad and Dad passed, so my memories may have faded. It's great getting old isn't it?

Cheers, K.

It all starts with William Huxtable Ball.....

So, the story begins.....

Granddad, William Huxtable Ball, was born on 18 August 1903 in New Wortley, Leeds, England. The address of his birth as 6-8th Avenue:


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His parents were Thomas Huxtable Ball and Annie Amelia Turner. His father was a journeyman plumber, who left for Canada in the spring of 1906. Granddad followed with his mother, leaving Liverpool aboard the ship, Dominion (Dominion Line), on 25 Apr 1907, bound for Montreal. They arrived on 7 May 1907. However, Granddad contacted pneumonia during the voyage and was forced to stay in hospital for a month in Montreal, before making the journey (likely by train) to Vancouver to join his father, Thomas. Granddad's family grew to include three sisters, Gwendolyn, Evelyn and Marjorie. He met his wife, Mary Meade McPhee, in the Royal Columbian Hospital, where she worked as nurse. They married on 4 June 1932 and raised two sons. He worked in the Shell Oil Refinery in Vancouver. His first job was in the warehouse, where he rolled barrels. He later took on sales positions with Shell and retired as a District Sales Manager. Nana and Granddad lived primarily in the Vancouver area and also spent time in the Okanagan while Dad and Bill were in high school.

Upon Granddad's retirement from Shell in 1960, he and Nana took an around-the-world cruise, sailing on a freighter from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, the Suez, to the UK, where they visited with Grandad's cousins in Penarth and Dinas Powys, Wales. They flew from London to Montreal, and visited with their sons, new granddaughter and future daughter-in-law. They moved to Nanoose Bay, outside of Parksville, on Vancouver Island, where they built a house overlooking the Strait of Georgia. Granddad died on 6 Apr 1971 of prostate cancer in Parksville, BC.

To be continued....

Ground rules

As I start out on this journey, I wanted to lay a few ground rules for myself and those wishing to post comments:

1. Identities of living persons will not be posted in this blog, my posts and comment replies. Social media is wonderful, but I don't want to invade or disrespect the privacy of family and friends. We all live in a world where everything is 'out there', but it should be a personal choice. If you chose to self-identify, please refrain from naming others who may not want to be identified.

2. The story of the Ball family will start with my grandfather, William Huxtable Ball, and go back by generation. There will be the occasion where I might stray off the path (ie. to discuss other branches like the Turners, etc.), but I will try to keep the retelling as orderly as possible.

3. If I am wrong, please correct me. Genealogy is a continual work in progress. Revision, rethinking and retracing are all part of the game.

4. If you have a memory or story to share, please share it.  If you have additional information, please post, by all means.  It might be the clue that gets the research around the brick wall - and there are many. Your suggestions for possible avenues for research and investigation are most welcome.
5. Check back often. I will try to post regularly to keep the conversation going.

Cheers,
K.

Secrets, lies and paper

If I had to chose a starting point, I would say that it was the receipt of a typewritten note on the history of the Ball family, composed by my great-aunt Gwen Hynds (sister to my grandfather, William Huxtable Ball). My Dad's mom,whom we called Nana, said not to take it too seriously as there were many errors (my great-grandmother died in 1947, not 1945). Nana sent it to us after Dad died and in some way it was a last tenuous link between us, Dad and the past. Mom and I dissected the note countless times, disagreed on the references and relationships noted, but it kept my interest piqued....

I won't post the whole note as there are references to living people and a dispute about money on my great-grandmother's (Turner) side - so you can see we are a very typical family... warts and all.

Like a great puzzle to solve, I felt compelled to sort fact from fiction.

Cheers,

K.

 

Why start doing your family history?

We all have many different reasons for starting out on the journey that is family history. For some, it is a matter of faith and duty. While for others, it is the challlenge and thrill of the hunt. 

In my case, our Ball family was precariously flung across a continent. My Dad came to Ontario to work and raise a family, while his only sibling and parents remained in British Columbia.  When Dad died, it was one less string that tied us together. The stories of his childhood and upbringing would no longer be heard.  I started this journey, as many of us do, too late to ask all the burning questions that trouble us now. I do this research to better understand who we are, to keep connected with my western cousins, to share our stories, and to pass along our history and stories to future generations.  While it is fun to collect name and dates to build the family tree, I am more interested in the stories behind the individuals.  What motivated them to stay or go, their lives and how they were connected to the places and events that surrounded them.

What are your reasons for doing family history?

What's in a name?

Growing up with a name like "Ball" was never easy.... just think of all the variations that kids can come up with - Bald, Baldy - and the sports - football, baseball, basketball, broomball, and other inanimate objects, ball game, ballroom, ballpark.  I think that I might have heard them all over the years.  Dad always used to caution my sister and me to be careful of who you marry - the wrong choice of combined surnames could be troublesome.

So what's in a name? According to the Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames by Charles Wareing Bardsley (1967), Ball is a name was given to mean 'the son of Baldwin' from the nickname Bald.  The 'd' was eventually dropped because it suggested baldness. Henry Harrison wrote in Surnames of the United Kingdom, a Concise Etymologoical Dictionary (1912) that Ball is "(Teutonic) A diminutive form of Baldwin. (Origin Celtic) Bald. (French / Latin) With bay colored or chesnut chair. (Latin) nut-brown. (French Teutonic) The name Ball derived from the trade-sign of a Ball."   Bald and brown.....who knew?

Welcome to The Ball Bureau

Garry and Bill Ball, ca. 1941

Welcome to The Ball Bureau, a blog for the sharing of Ball family research.  I am currently tracing my Ball family history on my father's side and hope to connect with other Ball family historians and researchers.  My Ball connection comes from Devon, England and has reached into Glamorgan Wales. I haven't come across may researchers working on my line of ancestors, so I feel like I am breaking new ground.

This blog is dedicated to my Dad, Garry Ball, and his brother, Bill Ball, who shared a love of storytelling, laughter and family. Dad passed in 1992 and we lost Bill this past year.  They are in our hearts always.

Cheers,
Karen