My Family Tree

John Ballum, a widower with 7 children, married Sarah McDougald at the residence of Alex McDougald, father of the bride, Western Road Lot 13, April 26 1866. Witnesses were Alex and William McDougald. The newspaper report said that Sarah was the second daughter of Alexander McDougald. A Ballum-McDougall genealogy said that her father did not approve of the marriage, and gave her only a feather pillow as a gift. However, this wasn't an unusual gift for the time.

Sarah reported having 13 children in the 1900 US census, of whom only 6 were living. Two daughters, Eliza Lucy Rose and Hannah, were in the PEI Baptismal Index. They, along with Harriet (14), Alex (12) Lucy (9) and John (2), were with Sarah in the 1881 census in Lot 13.

The family emigrated in 1886, near to where her sisters Eliza, Susannah and Jane were living. John Ballum died in 1894.

Hannah, John, Hattie, and Florence were living with their widowed mother in the 1900 census in Brockton, Massachusetts. Also in the household was 10 year old Edna Thayer, daughter of her sister Eliza, who had died five years earlier.

From 1910-1930, according to US census records, Hannah and Sarah Ballum were living with Harriet in nearby Holbrook Mass. In 1920, Bernice Ballum, aged 16, was also living with the family.

A Massachusetts Record of Death gave Sarah's date of death as November 30 1934. She died in Holbrook at the age of 88 years, 4 months and 21 days.

Some of the information on this family came from BALLUM: Ballum and MacDougall family genealogy. Christopher and Joanne Read. August 1994