I am searching for any siblings for this ancestor to determine his parentage. Records indicate this family only lived in County Tyrone, Ireland for one generation. As far as I can guess the candidates so far are "Thomas" "John" or remotely "Alexander". There is a naming convention for this family for "Thomas", "John", "Mary" and "Joseph". I have not found any published documentation so far. Any information would be helpful. Regards, Frank Soule [Mother was Mary Ross] On another ancient lineage I received this hint in searching Scottish records. It may be of use. "If I were you I wouldn't give up on your Ross family quite just yet - I think you stand a reasonable chance of tracing them back at least as far as 1600. In some ways Scottish family research is easier than English, partly because they observed very strict naming patterns, so parents and even grandparents names are fairly predictable provided you can find the names of the couple's children (the eldest son is named after his paternal grandfather, the second after the maternal grandfather, the third after the father, the eldest daughter is named for the maternal grandmother, then the paternal grandmother etc.), and partly because women retained their maiden names after marriage, so finding her family is not rules out even if you can't find the marriage." - from a UK research Associate