I have J.M. Marlin Ballard that has a puzzling configuration.  It has a forged frame with a ring type lever for set triggers (like the 1-3/4 Far West), but with a single trigger.  The barrel is marked 'No.44' with a '2' adjacent to the receiver and has faded bluing turning brown (the rifling is excellent).  The chamber conforms to 44 Extra Long Rimfire & the breech block has the dual firing pin.  The barrel has an 'L' rear sight marked 100, 250 & 500 YDS (still nicely blued) and the front is a Beecher Combination sight.
The barrel and forend stock are set up for the external manual extractor, but the frame has the internal extractor.  The frame serial number is 99XX.  The forend has the pre-Marlin steel nosecap with what appears to have faded case colors. The breechblock & hammer still show case colors, the hammer has a later type short spur.

Is this a rifle assembled from parts - a basic 'frankenballard'?  George Layman's book says they used left over parts during the beginning of the Marlin period, but this is strange.  Any thought would be appreciated.      Thanks, Mike

Sounds like one of two possiblitites. Either pretty early, or put together from two guns. One a JM Marlin, and the other a pre-Marlin Ballard.
The ring lever was the second variation, which is very early, but not the earliest type, as the earliest type levers were those that turned back under, and had either a locating pin on the receiver, or just the hole for a pin. These early levers wer leftovers from Brown that Marlin used up. I have a #4 with such an arrangement, and they are referred to as first variations. The levers look like this:
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None of the JM Marlin marked guns that I know of had the No. 44 marking on the barrels. Some did have the early external extractors, but they did not have the internal automatic extractor in addition. If your barrel is marked No. 44 it's most likely a .44 rimfire chamber, which can also fire .44 centerfire with the reversible Ballard firing pin setup. 
If you pull the forearm off, you should find a serial number underneath matching the receiver, but only if it was made by JM Marlin. If it was a pre-Marlin barrel, the serial number will be visable above the wood on the side of the receiver, unless it was removed when installed.
Your lever most likely looks like this one on my #2 in .44Ballard XL.
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Glad you figured it out Mike, but sorry it turned out to be what was suspected. Would have been neat to have turned out different!

Hi Mike,
I make my cases for my #2 in .44 Ballard Xl from .444 Marlin cases, but it takes a bit of work, and requires me to ream the necks once I shorten them. They have lots of metal above the rim, so they can be turned down to the proper size in that area.
The .44 Mag can be used also, but it's not quite as thick in the web area above the rim. 
Buffalo Arms sells cases already formed if you want to save yourself a lot of work.