well yesterday was exhilarating...thank you. Here's where I ended up

Bit of a hole between Elizabeth being baptized in 1720 in New York and the Daniel Ballard below who was born in 1754 in Massachusetts.

Daniel Ballard & Edward Hart – “Ballard & Hart” Boston MA – shipbuilders – Edward Hart built the USS Constitution

I have a William Dunley (Sr) who emigrated from England marrying Betsey Ballard in Boston MA on March 7, 1829.

WILLIAM BALLARD DUNLEY, was born in Madison Street, formerly Banker Street, in the Seventh Ward of New York city, on the 12th day of February, 1831. The Dunley family had for many years been engaged in the shipping interest of the city. William's father and grandfather, both on his father's and mother's side, were shipbuilders, and his maternal grandfather was one of the firm of Ballard & Hart, of Boston, Mass., who assisted in the building of the frigate, "Constitution." "Billy," as he is called by his numerous friends and acquaintances, followed in the footsteps of his ancestors, and has been engaged in the metal punching business for a long term of years, and has been in the Seventh Ward, of which he was a resident until about twenty years ago, when he removed to the Seventeenth Ward, where he now resides.

William Dunley’s (Sr) occupation is listed in the 1850 US Census as Copper Pansher (puncher?) at age 52…do you think he worked with William Ballard in the copper punching business?
He’s living with his son William (Jr) and 2 daughters (Sarah & Jane) in Ward 7 NYC. Betsey is not with William Dunley in 1850 and I have seen no further records of her.
In the 1880 US Census William Dunley is remarried to Francis….18 years younger.

You have to think my William Ballard who was a shipbuilder and was born in Boston MA on August 12, 1797 is Betsey’s brother…..and Daniel is his father (or least very closely related).
I have Daniel Ballard, occupation carpenter, living close to William B. Dunley in the 1850 US census in NYC at 96 years old!! Why would a father at this age not be living with his son?

More miles to go before I rest