... I seen on your site someone ages ago was searching Ballentine and Ferris and hoped this was a connection thanks Linda
I think there may well be a connection to Daniel Ballentine, but not to Agnes Ferris. The reality is that the forename / surname combination of Daniel Ballentine (and spelling variants) was exceedingly rare, for example, there were only 3 of them in the whole of the 1901 Ireland census. Factor in that Thomas consistently described his father as a carpenter, and the Daniel Ballentine of Larne who married Agnes Ferris of Larne in 1878 (they only later moved to Belfast) looks like a very strong possibility as the father of Thomas.
Daniel Ballentine was around 27 years old when he married Agnes, she was a good bit younger (I'm suspicious of her 'full' age in the 1878 marriage record). I checked for an illegitimate son named Thomas Ferris or 'Unnamed' Ferris born to Agnes before that 1878 marriage and couldn't find one. Which leaves open the possibility that Daniel had a son Thomas with another woman before his first marriage in 1878, the problem of course being that without knowing the woman's surname, how do you find the birth (which it would be registered under) or know for certain that it's him if you do find a possible birth?
I also checked newspapers for any leads on Thomas. What little there was related to him, for example the death notices for his 3rd wife Margaret Jane in 1977, for Thomas himself in 1961 and for his second wife Maria in 1923 (as well as the newspaper coverage of her death at Drummond Street in Larne, due to drinking methylated spirits) didn't offer up any clues.
