Hello everyone! Would like to encourage any of you who have hit a brick wall as to your Ross ancestors to consider participating in the Ross DNA project at familytreedna.com . The participation of any Ross males with a direct Ross line would greatly forward the progress of the project. Females can pitch in by helping to defray the costs of the tests, which are reduced anyway, when one orders a test via the Ross family project. The current group rate is $148 for a 25 loci and $189 for a 37 loci test. The latter is a better deal as to price and to accuracy in determining matches. If any of you is a documented descendent of Chief John Ross, the project would be interested in your participation as there is a possible descendent in the data base. There are also a number of us who are particularly interested in Ross ancestors living in the Southern U.S. at the time of the American Revolution. Any of you who have tried researching Southern ancestors, realize the difficulties in finding records as many were destroyed or not even kept (there is a joke about that, that Southerners KNEW who their ancestors were so why keep records?!), so DNA has the potential of providing important data to give us leads and to supplement oral histories. The Northern lines are also important to the Southern research and vice versa, as some families diverged in their migrations. In short, the ideal would be that ALL families be represented, by ONE member with the best "paper" documentation possible. It is however not necessary for more than one member, representing a particular line, to participate, unless needed to corroborate a family connection. My 2 Ross lines, or perhaps one Ross line - the DNA will help tell, are those of Isaac Ross, Sr. + Jean Brown and Rice Farrar Ross + Sarah Bonham. Yours truly, Linda Peaock