Nancy I spent some time at the library today and it is interesting as to what is not there as to what is there. First of all there is a Margaret Ball who had a brother Wm who died in Culpeper in 1802. iIn this Wm's will he does not name a wife or children , the legatees are his sister MArgaret who was left a suit of Mourning clothes and referred to as sister Margaret Barrow and Nephew Wm Gray son of Capt Wm Gray. In 1799 in Culpeper Wm Ball no title associated with him freed about 8 slaves( I did not read the manumissions) There was no will for the Capt Wm Ball or an estate acoounting for that matter or invnetory or any thing of that type to prove that Wm Ball died in 1785 which I found very odd. In the records that I could easily search after 1785 Wm Ball is no longer referred to as Gent( ths title was one that a lot of times was carreid through in records even after they wre no longer serving on the court) which may indicate that the Wm Ball found in the reoords afterh this date may be his son If it is the Wm that died in 102 then he was in mid 80's when he died.. There were no deeds from Wm Ball to anyone( therefore no wife named0 I did see one reference to Frances Ball however as a witness . To further complcate matters there was a Wm Ball who leased 250 acres in 1776 whose wife was Rebekah and son was James the land tax records seem to indicate that there may be 2 WM Ball's living in Culpeper at the same time. so now I am not sure whether this family connects into Fauquier or not and as such I will not post info about them to the list so as not to be accused of being off topic. I iwill gladly correspond with anyone off list however Susan