Delaware County NY Genealogy and History Site

This is a copy of a letter written to me from Irma Mae Griffin. I know there are a few errors in this letter and I have tried to type it exactly as it is written. The letter was written in Aug of 1987 and she died in October of the same year so I was never able to check with her on a few things that I have since found to be different than what she says in the letter. One thing I have found out is that Jeduthan, son of Peleg didn't move to Pennsylvania like she thought but moved to Greene County, NY. The other is that Peleg Ballard is most probably the grandson of Peleg and Bethia (Bumpus) Ballard instead of the son. We found this out by checking with census records, and looking at other letters she left to the library but I myself, have never been able to get absolute prove of who Peleg Ballard's parents were. As far as I know the rest of what is in the letter is pretty accurate. - Linda Ballard, August 25, 1999

Roxbury, N. Y. 1237 Aug. 28, 1987

Dear Linda:

I found the pamphlet on Francis Eaton. Oddly I found that but still haven't found the others. Anyway Francis Eaton and his wife Elizabeth (surname unknown) and their son Samuel were on the Mayflower. The wife Elizabeth later died. He had two daughters who have been lost track of. Then he married Martha Billington, whose parents John and Helen Billington, also came on the Mayflower. Samuel Eaton and his wife Martha had a daughter named Sarah. Sarah married Phillip Bumpus, a Holland Dutch who must have come about the time.

Phillip and Sarah had a daughter named Bethia Bumpus. She married Peleg Ballard, Sr. Peleg, Sr. and Bethia had a son Peleg Jr., who married Martha Haines. The father of Peleg, another William descendant of the first William was apparently moving around.. and so Peleg had the Bible name of Peleg. The Bible Peleg was so named as he lived around the time of the building of the Tower of Babel which was never finished as the people who were building it were more interested in moving around and finding new homes. The later Peleg, our ancestor's parents saw a lot of moving around too.. and so they named their son Peleg. He never did have a pegleg as some people thought -. His name was Peleg, a Bible name. And his son Peleg, Jr. was named for him. The first Peleg married Bethia Bumpus, whose parents were Phillip Bumpus who married Samuel Eaton's daughter Sarah.

Peleg, Jr. married Martha Haines and they moved to Batavia-kill now Vega and in the farm which was lived in by seven generations the last being a James Ballard and his wife. James was the son of Kenneth Ballard who had lived there when his father John F. Ballard gave up farming and moved to the villliage. John F. had the deed to the place which Peleg bought of a woman named Rachel Hardenburgh, December 24, 1794 the old Ballard Homestead.

Peleg had six children - four boys, Asa, James, Benjamin, and Jeduthan. Jeduthan moved to Pennslyvania I think. But the others stayed around. So did the two daughters Zillah (married John Todd) and Elizabeth who married David Mead, I think, yes and they have a lot of ancestors around too - who are descendants of another Mayflower passenger.

You are descended from Peleg's son James - Paul Ballard from Asa, and Milton and Mildred from Benjamin. I am descended from Zillah and a lot of people I know are descended from Elizabeth who married David Mead. Zillah married John Todd whose daughter Katy was an ancestor of the Morses.

Sincerely,
Irma Mae Griffin