JEANETTE Murdoch is researching her family tree and, in particular, trying to find out information about her great grandfather, William Ball, who once owned a dairy in Jersey.

He was born in 1824 in St John’s, Cornwall, and moved to Alderney with a group of government workers from Cornwall. He was married to Frances Miller and after her death, he married Caroline Smith in 1854.

The 1861 Jersey Census shows that he was living at 73 Great Union Road, St Helier, and was the owner of a dairy there which remained in the family for 60 years.

After his death in 1916, the dairy was taken over by Mrs Murdoch’s grandfather, Arthur Archer Ball, but as a result of changes within the dairy industry, he sold it and moved to Plymouth with his wife, Kate Elizabeth Hawkins and daughter Gladys Nora Ball (Jeanette Murdoch’s mother, born 1913 in St Helier).

‘We would love to find out what happened to William’s children and to the dairy,’ says Mrs Murdoch. ‘I know what happened to Arthur, Percy, Alfred, Celia and Caroline, but don’t know about Sarah (born 1857 in Alderney), nor the rest who were all born in St Helier, William (1860), Mary (1861), John (1863), Charles (1866), Edward (1869) and Emily (1873).’

She does not know when William moved to Jersey but has discovered that his sister, Sarah Miller Drake, had been in Jersey since 1841.

• If anyone can help in tracing this family tree, they can contact Jeanette, or her son, David Turner, of Devon, by e-mail at Myoldcarpet@aol.com or by telephoning 01752 895864.

• Picture: Gladys Nora Ball