This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/YCB.2ACI/416.1.1 Message Board Post: Hi Anna,I see you're a member of SWLGS. I am a new member!! Thanks so much for answering my query.To answer your questions: You are the first to reply....so, no, no help yet from the genealogical circles, just personal sleuthing.One exception, my friend, Rebecca Lavergne from the Point de l'Eglise Genealogical and Historical Society in Acadia Parish (friend of Alvenia Thibodeaux also from SWLGS), went to the State Archives and found the death information of my great grandfather Hypolite Doucet. This connects our Doucet lines as her great grandfather Dosithee II is Hypolite's brother.I found another connection in the Ballance-Perkins lines. My great grandmother, Fannie Adeline Ballance, had a sister, Anne Eliza, who married into Jan Craven's Perkins line. Yes, I have seen the Ballance graves at Ritchie. Jan Craven has been a good friend and so helpful. She took me to Ritchie and Orange Grove when I visited Louisiana back in late April. I was very touched to actually s! tand before them. (I was able to see them long before my visit on Virtual Ritchie - what a great idea to photograph individual tomb markers.) Jan also took me to the library. Wish I had had days to spend there. She also verified the family picture I sent to her as being Anne Eliza (Ballance) Perkins.I do know more now about the Ballance family than I did on January 29, 2001 but the primary questions remain: What happened to the Ballance family between the 1860 TX Census, where and when they died and how did they end up in the Ritchie Cemetery; when and where did Hypolite Doucet and Fannie Ballance marry?This is quite lengthy. I've put my sources in brackets.R.C. (Rayford Crawford) (Rafe) BALLANCE b. abt. 1814 MS m. abt. 1839 MS Rose Ann PENNELL b. 1820 SC [Family Search, Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints]. They migrated to TX. I can place them there as early as December 16, 1839 [Land Records, TX] and as late as the 1860 TX Federal Census [Newton County, TX] Unconfi! rmed place of death - family says they died in TX and were transported to Ritchie Cemetery for burial.I found seven children:Albert Hanan BALLANCE b. 1840 Newton, TX [1850 TX Census] m. 27 Feb 1868 Orange, TX Mary E. TRIPLETT b. 1842 IL [Marriage Records]. They had a child Mary, age 1, listed in the 1870 TX Census. Albert served in Company D, Rapides Rangers CSA [Service Record]. No place of death.Leonora Ellen BALLANCE b. 1843 Newton, TX [1850, 1860 TX Census] d. abt. 1899 unknown. Buried Ritchie Cemetery, Calcasieu LA.James Crisoff BALLANCE b. 1850 Newton, TX [1860 TX Census and Related Information] d. abt. 1878 unknown. Buried Ritchie Cemetery, Calcasieu LA.Anne Eliza BALLANCE b. 1851(53) Newton, TX [1860 TX Census] m. abt. 1870 ? William Ervin PERKINS b. 1 Sep 1844 Rapides or Calcasieu, LA (s/o Maranda and Lydia Ann (FOREMAN) PERKINS d. May 1906 Calcasieu LA [Jan Craven, Allied-Gill Family]. Anne Eliza d. 31 Oct 1926 Calcasieu, LA [Death Certificate]. Buried at Rit! chie Cemetery. Children: William 1871 TX, Simon 1874 LA, Edward 1875 TX [1880 Calcasieu Census, Allied-Gill Family].Mary Eveline BALLANCE b. 1857-59 Newton TX [1860 TX Census] m. abt. 1874 Wiergate, TX James Neilon HEARD b. 1847 Hardin, Liberty, TX d. 1898 Lake Charles, Calcasieu LA. Mary Eveline d. 1912 Lake Charles, Calcasieu LA. Two children: Luthy A. (male) b. abt. 1875 LA; Pearl Lavinia HEARD b. 1 Jan 1886 Lake Charles, Calcasieu LA m. 5 Apr 1903 James Henry BLANKENSHIP b. 2 Dec 1872 Heber Springs, Cleburne AR (s/o William H. BLANKENSHIP and Martha ?) d. 11 Apr 1941 DeQuincey, Calcasieu LA. Pearl d. 13 Feb 1971 Sulphur, Calcasieu LA. Burials unknown. They had two daughters - unnamed and living. [Family Search-Family Group Record submitted by Christopher Boyett]Rosa Caroline BALLANCE b. 1863, Newton TX m. abt. 1887 Lawrance (Lastie) Carlos LEBLEU b. 1861 LA d. 12 Dec 1934 Houston, Harris TX. Rosa Caroline d. 18 Aug 1935 Houston, Harris, TX. Burials unknown. T! hey had a son Bennie b. 25 Jan 1903 Neame, Vernon LA m. 29 Dec 1927 Houston, Harris TX Genevive Leona HOWE b. 26 June, 1895 Vallier, St. Charles LA d. 26 June 1980 Houston, Harris TX. [SWLGS Member No. 660 Maurice Jean LeBleu]Fannie Adeline BALLANCE b. 1866(68) Newton TX m. abt. 1887 Hypolite DOUCET b. 1855 St. Landry LA [LDDM] s/o Dosithee and Marie Suzanne (QUARTINE) DOUCET d. 30 Aug 1904 Angola, West Feliciana LA [Death Record of Louisiana State Penitentiary]. Fannie d. 21 Aug 1943 Lake Charles, Calcasieu LA [Death Certificate]. Buried Ritchie Cemetery, Calcasieu LA. They had three children: Melvin Paul b. 22 Aug 1888 d. 21 Sept 1967; Arthur Clyde b. 29 Dec 1890 d. 5 Mar 1982 [Death Certificate]; and John Russell b. 7 June 1898 d. 23 Feb 1928 [Death Certificate] All three sons lived in the Moss Bluff area and are buried at Ritchie Cemetery, Calcasieu LA. I did not list the families of Melvin and Arthur, although I have them, because I did not think it germane to my! search. John never marriedThanks for your patience in reading this. I would welcome any suggestions as to how to proceed from here.