Richard Albert ("Dick") Ross was born on August 30, 1920, in Wisconsin to Dominic and Anita (Raffone) Viole or Violi. In 1928, Anita married John K. Ross in Waukegan, Illinois, and her children took the Ross surname. Dick graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago in 1938.

Lillian June Jennings, born on September 9, 1920, grew up in Houghton and graduated from Houghton High School in 1938. Her mother, Lillian (Nappa) Jennings, was of Nordic extraction, and her father, William Jennings, had an English heritage that would be very important to his daughter later on in her life.

Dick and June met in California, where he had relocated to work for the California State Department of Employment. Following his service in the United States Army, the two married in 1947.

After Dick's retirement in 1975, the Rosses became passionately invested in genealogical research, and they devoted the years from 1977 through 2004 to national and international research trips. Guided primarily by June's background, the couple traveled to Cornwall and the American mining districts that had welcomed Cornish miners, collecting and indexing genealogical data along the way. Their immense research files included vital records, church documents (such as baptismal information), newspapers, immigration and travel data, local directories, and an extensive slate of other published and unpublished materials.

Dick died at age 84 on February 16, 2005. June passed away six years later on August 10, 2011.