WELCOME! Please Join Our ROSS
Family Project!
You are person # to visit our
site!!
ROSS FAMILY DNA PROJECT
The Ross Family DNA Project seeks to use DNA analysis to enable Ross
families to determine if they share a common ancestor with other Ross
families. For ease of developing this page, I have
chosen my family name “Ross” to describe the project. Please be assured that this project is for
all derivatives of the name (Ross, Ros, etc.)
The
project will:
- Develop a table of
genetic patterns of all Ross Families so that Ross researchers can
determine whether their families have a common ancestor with other Ross
families
- Encourage Ross
researchers to submit DNA samples.
- Share the results with
all participants in the project and make the results publicly available on
the internet with appropriate considerations for privacy of participants
We
are a young project and only have a few tests complete at this time. So as you can see we need representatives
from YOUR line. Please find someone from
your tree who qualifies and submit a test as soon as you can!
Contact
co-administrators of this project, Cherie Ohlsson (cherie_Ohlsson@yahoo.com) with any
questions.
Those who want to, once and for all, put to bed the family lore that you are related to the family from Ross Castle in Kerry Ireland; the original Ross clan chieftain Fearchar Mac-an-T-Saigart of Balnagowan Castle, Scotland; the Antarctic explorers Sir James Clark Ross and Sir John Ross; John Ross, husband of US flag maker, Betsy Ross; or to Cherokee Chief John Ross (or other famous / infamous people)…DNA testing is the way.
The
project uses high technology DNA analysis to determine whether families share a
common ancestor. The male chromosome is
passed down virtually unchanged from father to son. So, two male Ross 7th cousins
would have virtually the same male DNA pattern.
This scientific fact is useful in genealogy when one does not have
documentary records to show a family connection despite circumstantial evidence
that suggest a family connection. If the
DNA of the descendants of the branches one is trying to connect do not have the
same DNA pattern, then one knows they are not closely related. If the pattern does match, then there is a
common ancestor at some point in the past lineage. The technology can’t pinpoint how many
generations back the ancestor is, but it can tell us if there is a common
ancestor.
Participants
joining the project are sent a lab kit in the mail. The kit includes a “Q” tip or toothbrush type
of instrument that one rubs along the inside of one’s cheek with for 30 to 60
seconds. Then the swab is placed in an
envelope and mailed to the lab. That’s
all it takes.
Within
6 to 8 weeks, results are available for the sample submitted. When enough samples are collected to make
comparisons between branches of the family, a summary sheet will be supplied to
each participant indicating which branches were shown to have a common
ancestor.
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A
fellow researcher sent the following page that contains a list of good
resources for genealogists. If you have
a good website for that we should list here, let me know.
MY FACTS PAGE - GENEALOGY RESOURCES
Useful list of records available in
http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roots/irish/irishrecords/censussubstitutes.
http://www.ireland.com/ancestor/browse/counties/ulster/antrim1.htm
http://www.ireland.com/ancestor/browse/counties/ulster/down1.htm
http://www.nireland.com/genealogy/census.html
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-
8266(194304)58%3A230%3C234%3AACOIC1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O
http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-Census-1659-surnames-locations/dp/0940134896
http://www.originsuk.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=140&se
archterm=Ireland
PRONI in Belfast is the best source ror Ulster Records. There website is www.proni.gov.uk
Useful source of free records at the following site!
http://www.ulsterancestry.com/ua-free-pages.php
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To help the pay the costs of
donations FTDNA has funds set up for each project. If you would like to help defray the cost of
tests for other people go to http://www.familytreedna.com/contribution.html. Be sure to specify the donation is to be
given to the “Ross” project. Thank you
for your generosity!
____________________________________________________________________________
The gaelic word
"ros" means a "headland" and is often used as part of place
names in
There was an ancient Celtic earldom of Ross in the north-east of
Clan Ross takes its name from
the Clan's lands in the beautiful
In 1214, when Alexander II
led an army to the north to repress a rebellion by Donald Bane, who was
claiming the throne, Clan Ross assisted the king and was rewarded with the
title Earl of Ross. Fearchar's loyalty
to King Alexander II was rewarded in 1215 when he received a knighthood, and in
1226 he was created Earl of Ross.
The Ross clan was prominent
in the Scottish affairs and supported an alliance with Llewellyn, the Welsh
Prince, against the English. They fought
at the Battle of Largs against the Vikings in 1263 and spoke in Parliament in
1283 to support settling the succession of the throne on the infant Princess
Margaret, the Maid of Norway.
The clan and their chief, William, served with distinction in the Wars of
Independence against the English. There is a great write-up of the Ross clan
and the family at the My
Clan website.) Their chief was
captured at the Battle
of Dunbar in 1296 and was taken as a prisoner to
Hugh, the 5th Chief and Earl
married a sister of Robert the Bruce
and fell at the Battle of
Halidon Hill in 1333. His son, William,
died without male heir in 1372 and so the Earldom passed through the female
side into the Clan Leslie. The chieftainship was granted to William's brother,
Hugh Ross of Rariches, who was granted a charter to the lands of Balnagowan in
1374. Not all Ross’s totally supported the Crown.
The earldom was forfeited
when the Lord of the Isles was defeated in 1476 but the surname survived and
the chieftainship devolved to the Rosses of Balnagowan near Tain. After a long struggle with the neighbouring
clan MacKays,
the clan Ross was defeated at a battle at Strathcarron by the Mackays in 1486
and never recovered. Despite this, Ross is still one of the five most frequent
names in the northern Highlands and the 16th most frequently registered in the
whole of
The 12th chief led 1,000 of
his clansmen against Oliver
Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. However, many were captured
and transported to the colonies in
For over three centuries the
chiefship rested with the Ross’s of Balnagowan, until the death of the 13th
Chief of the Clan, David Ross of Balnagowan, in 1711. The chiefship then passed
to another Ross family, and the Chief became the Hon. Charles Ross, son of Lord
Ross of Hawkhead in Renfrewshire. A
Norman family called de Ros settled in south-west
The chiefship now rests with
the family of Ross of Pitcalnie, heir of the line of David, last of the old
family of Balnagowan. For more
information about the Ross heritage see http://www.yourscottishname.com/ross_clan.htm. The Corbet, Dingwall, Duthie, Fair,
Gillanders, Haggart, McLulich, MacTaggart, MacTear, MacTire, Taggart, Train,
Vass and Wass families are all regarded as septs (sub-branches) of the powerful
Clan Ross.
See the Clan Ross Website for more
information on the international clans sanctioned by the current
chieftain. Much of the information here
was taken from the website at http://www.rampantscotland.com/clans/blclanross.htm.
The Ross clan has spread from
ROSE CLAN
The Rose connection: John Robert Ross's book " The Great
Clan Ross" published in limited edition in 1972 lists the Kilravock
estate as formerly being owned by a Ross family until about 1688. The passage
reads:
" Hugh Ross (Rose) fourteenth Laird of Kilravock and Rosshill had a
delayed infeftment in 1672. He married a daughter of James Lord Ross and Dame
Margaret Scot, and the history of this family of Rosses ends abruptly with
Hugh's death in 1688. In 1672 there was a change in entail and a change of name
and the records indicate that the family of Rose of Kilravock became the
proprietors of these estates." (p 148)
Here is another place where
this Ross spelling is declared: http://books.google.com/books?id=K00NAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA492&lpg=PA492&dq=Rosshill+kilravock&source=web&ots=XwMfLMfSCF&sig=jUCsH08kOa-bbJ0D1zqt98UHN3g#PPA484,M1
The entail is highly likely to have a strong Ross/Rose family connection and
probably was a Ross who took the Rose spelling and changed historical references
to Rose. One list of Rose Lairds can be
found at http://users.eastlink.ca/~grose/roseclan.html.
Info on Rose (Kilravock)
Castle is on the Rose clan website: http://www.clanrose.org/kilravockcastle.htm
where it states the castle was erected in 1460 by Kilravock VII under charter
by John, Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross.
The most widely accepted
account of the Roses is in the book "A
Genealogical Deduction of the Family of Rose of Kilravock with Illustrative
Documents from the Family Papers and Notes Rose, Hugh” by Cosmo Innes http://books.google.com/books?id=rb9GCo3_bqYC&pg=PA17&dq=Ross+kilravock#PPA13,M1.
Here is synopsis of what this
document states is the lineage of the Rose Clan:
OTHER NOTIBLES
A descendant of Hugh, the 9th
Chief, was Colonel George Ross, an officer in the American Patriot Army which
fought the British in the War of Independence. His signature appears on the
American Declaration of Independence.
Betsy Ross (married to
another John Ross) made the first example of the present
Another of the many of the Clan to rise to prominence in the
Charles “Charley” Brewster
Ross, was the 1st kidnap for ransom victims in the
A great description of the
Scots-Irish migration to America can by found in "Born Fighting, How the
Scots-Irish Shaped America" by James Webb:
"The Scots-Irish Presbyterians began trickling out of
Ulster soon after the 1704 Test Acts came into force [in Ireland]. In the
next two decades a rather small assortment of families, typically traveling in
"parcels of 600 to 800 people, ventured across the Atlantic to test
America's promise as well as its receptivity to their religion and their
cultural ways [...] In this first experimental wave of emigration the Ulster
emigrants scattered their arrivals amount the major ports of Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Annapolis, and Charleston, South Carolina.
But by the early 1720's, when the large-scale migrations
from Norther Ireland began, the port of choice had become
From the early 1720s to the beginning of the American
Revolution in 1775, there were four great surges of Scots-Irish
migration. Each was brought about not only by events in
The Ulster Presbyterians who migrated to
Early migrations to
He later says the Scots-Irish were lured to
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The Ross Family DNA project
seeks to include data from the various Ross DNA projects and incorporate their
data. Family Tree DNA’s (FTDNA)
laboratory is recommended. It is
affiliated with Dr. Michael Hammer and the
Other
projects use other labs, but the results cannot be loaded into the FTDNA
database. However, if you send us the
results we will match them with the members data in this project and we will
add the results to our display.
By ordering through FTDNA you
receive project group rates, which are less expensive than standard rates. The following Y-chromosome DNA tests are
available. Please see the FTDNA
website for availability of other types of DNA testing.
The 12 marker test is best at ruling out relatedness with another participant,
but is of limited value in genealogy and is not recommended. The 25 marker test is more refined. And FTDNA is now
offering the 37 marker test. Whichever
you choose now can always be upgraded later for an additional fee.
Other kits are available for
testing Haplogroups.
By ordering the kit through our project you are agreeing to have your results incorporated with other tests and displayed on this site.
Click
here, to order a DNA Sample Kit, or email one of the administrators
for assistance. Please note, that when
you order your sample kit online you may string other email addresses in the
email contact information. Separate them
by a semicolon. For example: InterestedParty1@xxx.com;
InterestedParty2@xxx.com.You may
include anyone you wish, such as anyone who took part in paying for your
test.
When you receive the test, you will find a release form. Please complete it and return it with your sample. This will make your results (numbers only, no personal information) accessible in online searches of the FTDNA database and will enable FTDNA to notify you of future matches. However, it does not make your information available to other surname projects or Ysearch.
We strongly encourage
all participants to make their results public in the FTDNA
database and in YSearch (for Ydna tests) and MitoSearch (for mtDNA tests). (Information at this link was gratefully
obtained from Phillip Hawkins on his excellent Hawkins
surname project.
Lastly, if you would email your
family tree to us, minus living people, we would really appreciate it, so we
can add it to this site. If you have
your data on a website you may send the address for that. Please let us know if you would be willing to be a
coordinator for your specific Ross line.
If you do we post your name and email address as a contact for anyone
wishing to get more information or to find other people in the tree. The time commitment should be small.
For
more information, contact the project co-administrators above.
____________________________________________________________________________
Please upload your
information to Ysearch, if you have not already done so (some ROSS members have
not done this). Doing this will not
compromise any security that you desire to protect.
Family Tree DNA
participants: Go to your Personal Page
and simply click Upload, to automatically upload your Y-DNA results to
Ysearch. If you then upgrade your Y-DNA test, such as from 25 Markers to
37 Markers, the Upload selection will reappear on your Personal Page, as a
reminder to upload the additional Markers.
Also Ysearch (http://www.ysearch.org/edit_start.asp) has been enhanced so
that the location for your most distant male ancestor can be entered using
latitude and longitude coordinates. It is important to update your
Ysearch record with this information. For
Also, you may now upload your
family file (.ged).
If you tested with Family
Tree DNA, but have not yet established a record at Ysearch.org, go to your
Personal Page, and click "Ysearch."
If you tested at another
vendor, here is the link to first create a record for your result
at Ysearch.org: http://www.ysearch.org/add_start.asp
If you have also taken a
mitochondrial test you may update your data to MitoSearch which is similar to
Ysearch. The link will appear at the top
of your personal page. Mitochondrial
markers are passed from mother to child, but are only passed along by the
daughters. Since mitochondrial tests are
maternal markers they are not associated with a surname.
____________________________________________________________________________
John Blair has an excellent
explanation of the DNA process on his Blair Surname Project. Basically there are 43 DNA Markers which are
passed from father to son and remain the same generation to generation with an
occasional mutation. This is why only
males can do this test. All Y-DNA tests
allow you to identify your ethnic and geographic origins (Haplogroup), both
recent and far distant on your direct male descending line. Among others, you
will be able to check your Native-American or African Ancestry as
well as for the Cohanim Ancestry.
A description of Haplogroups follows this section.
A wonderful set of videos
describing DNA testing and how it can help you in your genealogy research is
provided on the Family Tree DNA website at http://www.familytreedna.com/videoaudio.html.
FTDNA also has an explanation
of the genetic distances (when the markers are different) and what it means at http://www.familytreedna.com/gdrules_12.html. Basically out of 25 markers tested, if you
mismatch on:
0 markers – you are related
1 marker – you are related
2 markers – you are probably
related
3 markers – you are probably
not related, but more tests need to be done
4. markers – you are not
related but it is vaguely possible.
5 markers – you are not
related but possibly shared an ancestor over 2000 years ago.
6 markers – you are not
related but possibly shared an ancestor over 5000 years ago.
7 (or more) markers – you are
not possibly related.
____________________________________________________________________________
FTDNA Y-DNA tests allow you
to identify your ethnic and geographic origins (Haplogroups), both recent and
far distant. Among other features, this test will also be able to indicate your
Native-American Ancestry and which of the 5 major groups that settled in
the Americans you are most likely to be descended from. It can also
describe African Ancestry as well as other ethnic origins.
Y-DNA
Haplogroup Descriptions:
The
following Haplogroup Descriptions are from the FamilyTreeDNA.com website which
was the testing company used to determine the nearest Haplogroup assigment
based on the individual's haplotype results from the Y-DNA test. These verbatim
Haplogroup Descriptions and/or excerpts are copyrighted by FamilyTreeDNA.com
and all rights to these descriptions are claimed by FamilyTreeDNA.com. These
descriptions have been printed here with the permission of FamilyTreeDNA.com.
These descriptions cannot be used elsewhere without the written permission of
FamilyTreeDNA.com.
Please
note that people in different Haplogroups cannot be related within many
thousands of years, and that each male test result provides a prediction of the
Haplogroup currently about 90% of the time. If your Y-DNA matches suggest that
you belong, for example, to Haplogroup R1b, you may confirm that by ordering a
Y-DNA SNP test for the R1b clade.
In
general the following rule of thumb may be used: R1b = Western Europe, R1a =
Haplogroup
B is one of the oldest Y-chromosome lineages in humans.
Haplogroup
B is found exclusively in
Haplogroup
C is found throughout mainland
Haplogroup
C3 is believed to have originated in southeast or central
Haplogroup
D2 most likely derived from the D lineage in
Haplogroup
E3a is an
Haplogroup
E3b is believed to have evolved in the
Haplogroup
G may have originated in
Haplogroup
H is nearly completely restricted to
Haplogroups I, I1, and I1a are nearly completely restricted to
northwestern
Haplogroup
I1b was derived within Viking/Scandinavian populations in northwest Europe and
has since spread down into southern
Haplogroup
J is found at highest frequencies in Middle Eastern and north African
populations where it most likely evolved. This marker has been carried by
Middle Eastern traders into Europe, central Asia,
Haplogroup
J2 originated in the northern portion of the Fertile Crescent where it later
spread throughout central Asia, the Mediterranean, and south into
Haplogroup
Q is the lineage that links Asia and the
Haplogroup
Q3 is the only lineage strictly associated with native American populations.
This haplogroup is defined by the presence of the M3 mutation (also known as
SY103). This mutation occurred on the Q lineage 8-12 thousand years ago as the
migration into the
Haplogroup
R1a is believed to have originated in the Eurasian Steppes north of the Black
and
Haplogroup
R1b is the most common Haplogroup in European populations. It is believed to
have expanded throughout
____________________________________________________________________________
We have result from the many lines,
but we need representatives from the following notables:
- Colonel George Ross, signer of the American
Declaration of Independence.
- John Ross, husband of Betsy Ross who made
- Cherokee Chief John Ross.
- Charles “Charley” Brewster Ross, the 1st
kidnap for ransom victims in the
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CLICK HERE to go to the DNA Results for
the project. Notes about some markers
follows to clear up confusion.
Our
project recommends a minimum of 25 markers be tested, 37 is even better.
To be considered a match you should match 11 out of 12 in a
12-marker test, 23 out of 25 for a 25-marker test and 34 out of 37 for a
37-marker test. This does not rule out that you might be
related to someone where you don’t match the numbers. You and someone else who don’t match could
match a third person, with each of you only mismatching the third person by 2
markers…just 2 different markers.
On
a different note, what happens if you have documented your tree and are sure
you have a connection to another tree, yet the DNA samples don’t match? It could be that in some past generation, the
father was not who the child thought it was.
For instance, it was not uncommon for orphans to be adopted (legally or
just family members raising other family members’s children) and never be
told. This is where the public databases
in FTDNA and Ysearch become very useful.
Your test results can be matched to all results that people have allowed
to be public in those databases. If you
find a match, you then MAY know the surname tree of your elusive ancestor. This is why it is so important that people
make their data public.
There
are two ways to display the result of the second test on marker 389. In both
cases, the name for the marker is 389-2. The first way to display the result is
by showing the result from the original test, which is the total for the entire
389 marker, including the first section. This is how Family Tree DNA displays
the result.
The second way is to show the result only for the second section that is tested
by subtracting the 389-1 score from the original second test score. This is how
the Genographic Project displays the result.
Basically, converting between the two is easy: simply add together the two 389
values from the Genographic Project to get the 389-2 value for Family Tree DNA,
or subtract the 389-1 value from 389-2 from the Family Tree DNA results in
order to get the 389-2 value for the Genographic Project.
What
this means is you may be off one in the 389-2 display, but only because you
were off one in the 389-1 marker. If so,
it only means you differ by 1 marker, not 2.
FTDNA gives this explanation on the fast
moving markers:
Y
DNA: Marker Selection
From
a genealogical perspective, useful markers are those which can change, but
which do not change too often.
By selecting a mix of markers that change slowly and therefore are relatively
stable, as well as more rapidly-changing markers, Family Tree DNA is providing
the best selection of markers for genealogical purposes. Multi-copy markers are
a very important component of the marker mix.
On the Group Administrators' Y-DNA Results Page, fast moving markers are shown
in red in the heading. These markers are:
DYS 385a, b
DYS 439
DYS 458
DYS 449
DYS 464a, b, c, d
DYS 456
DYS 576
DYS 570
CDYa, b
You will notice on the above list, that several of the fast moving markers are
multi-copy markers, which are very valuable, since they change more rapidly.
A multi-copy marker is one where several copies of the marker exist on the Y
chromosome. The name of a multi-copy marker includes small letters, such as a
or b, following the marker DYS name.
When selecting the markers for our various tests, Family Tree DNA included 1 or
2 multi-copy markers in each panel, corresponding to the four Y-DNA tests
available. The 12 marker Y DNA test has 1 multi-copy marker. The upgrade to 25
markers adds 2 multi-copy markers, and the upgrades to 37 markers and then to
67 markers each include 2 more multi-copy markers. Inclusion of these
multi-copy markers is important based on both scientific attributes of the
marker as well as the genealogical implications.
Test Multi-Copy Markers
====
==================
12 Marker 385a, 385b
25 Marker Upgrade 459a, 459b and 464a,
464b, 464c, 464d
37 Marker Upgrade YCA II a, YCA II b
and CDY a, CDY b
67 Marker Upgrade 395S1a, 395S1b and
413a, 413b
For markers to have value to genealogical research, they must be stable, but
not so stable that they can't differentiate lineage, and also change, but not
change so quickly that closely related persons don't match. A well-formed panel
includes a range of markers which change more rapidly and markers which change
less rapidly.
Multi-copy markers tend to change more rapidly. Markers which change more
rapidly are valuable to genealogical applications of DNA testing, to
differentiate lines or branches, or identify persons who are not related.
Rapidly changing markers are valuable in differentiating unrelated individuals
using a small number of markers.
Marker DYS464 is a rapidly changing Y chromosome marker and a multi-copy
marker. It most often has four copies, which are labeled: DYS464a, DYS464b,
DYS464c, DYS464d. Marker DYS464 is also known to occur more than four times.
Additional copies of DYS464 are called: DYS464e, DYS464f, and so forth. When
more than four copies of DYS464 are found in a DNA sample, the results for all
the copies are provided by Family Tree DNA.
When testing a random sample of 679 males for DYS464, scientists have found
that the result 15,15,17,17 occurred in 10.6% of those tested, 15,15,16,17
occurred in 7.5% of the samples, and all the other results occurred less than
5% of the time, with over half these results only occurring once. This
illustrates that marker DYS464 is valuable in differentiating unrelated
persons.
The results for a multi-copy marker are reported in ascending order. For
example, here are some results for DYS464:
11 11 14 16
12 14 15 16
Since the results are reported in ascending order for multi-copy markers, this
must be taken into account when comparing the results of the markers between
individuals. For example, consider the following results:
Example 1: 15 15 17 17
Example 2: 13 13 15 17
At a glance, you may see 3 differences, but there are really only 2. To
correctly interpret the results for this multi-copy marker, the results that
match are not counted as differences. The 15 in the first example above matches
a 15 in the second example, so the 15 is not counted as a difference, even
though the two 15's do not line up in the display of the results. A 17 from the
first example matches the 17 in the second example. The two 13's in the second
example do not have a match in the first example, so in comparing these two
results, we find 2 differences.
Since multi-copy markers change more rapidly, these markers are an excellent
tool to identify branches or lines, or to identify persons who are not related
in a genealogical time frame.
____________________________________________________________________________