On Monday, October 7, I had the honor and distinct pleasure of meeting face-to-face with Mr. Jim Ball of Uniontown, Ohio. I've been corresponding with Jim via email since 2000 having been introduced by cousin Tim Lunceford. It really was a hoot to finally have a chance to meet him in person and discuss his family research and background. Jim is a US Marine which pretty much settled everything for me right then and there. Knowing he spent time at Quantico totally set my mind at ease..
Practically all of my data on Baldwin and his immediate family was from the earlier research and efforts of Jim and Tim. Jim has done extensive work on his Ball lineages way before the internet era when primary court house and census records were all that was available. His interest in the Lunsfords was due to Baldwin's first wife Anna Ball. Jim's family history web site can be found here. And please check out his earlier guest post to the BRMM here.
We began the day at the Fauquier County Court House deed room where I wanted to try and run down documentation on E. C. Lunceford's connection to Logan's Mill. After several hours there we made it over to the Virginiana Room at the Fauquier County Public Library to check out the various guide books and indices. Like most things in genealogy we probably could have spent several days discussing family history, but modern life intruded and we had to call it a day.
In science we often talk of standing on the shoulders of giants, those who's work we add to and carry on with our own. The same thing goes for genealogy research. Especially all of the effort that was done by researchers like Jim well before the advent of the internet and the various genealogy forums and web sites. Back then you had to go to the court house or library and dig through deed books or microfilm of census and vital records. Things are somewhat easier today, but we owe a great debt to those researchers that did the really hard work before us.
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