**Biography updated 3/31/2024:

Jane was the second child born to James and Sarah Garrett Evans in Warrick, Indiana. She is on the 1820 census as the female child under 10 years old along with her brother William born in 1818. Jane married William Ashby Ross on March 22, 1838 in Vincennes, Warrick, Indiana. Before this, Jane was living with her family on the 1830 census in Hart, Warrick, Indiana. By 1840, Jane and her husband were living in Ohio, Warrick, Indiana with a newborn son. Then about 1844 to 1845, they move to Wapello, Iowa where Jane's father-in-law Evan Ross dies in 1845. (See information about their children on William Ashby Ross' profile). There is also an 1846 census for William Ross in Wapello, Iowa. From a biography of William Taylor Thompson who married Jane's sister Polly Ann, it has been discovered that James and Sarah Garrett Evans were temporarily in Highland Township, Richland, Wapello, Iowa in 1852. It appears that his wife, two daughter's and a son were with him, so perhaps they were Jane's younger sisters Vashti and Isadore Elizabeth as well as her brother Isaac. On the 1850 census prior to this, Vashti and Isadore Elizabeth Evans were living with William Ross and Jane Evans Ross. The family moves around a bit and we find them also in Wright, Wayne, Iowa in 1856 and Gosport, Marion, Iowa in 1860. In 1875, they are in Chariton, Lucas, Iowa according to the birth certificate witnessed by their son John Henry Ross in 1940 of the birth of Jane's grandson Elmer Clarence Shockley who was born on Dec. 7, 1875 in Chariton. After Elmer's mother Mary Louis Ross Shockley McCabe died in 1930, Elmer likely needed a witness to his birth. This is when we find that John Ross' middle name was Henry; possibly being named after Jane's younger brother Henry Evans. By 1880, William and Jane were living in Sumner, Kansas and then in 1885 in Pleasant Grove, Greenwood, Kansas, and were living with their son John and near their daughter Mary Ross Shockley who had just lost her husband a year prior. James Ross was also living nearby. According to the obituary for William and Jane Ross' son John Henry Ross, his parents both died in 1885 in Greenwood, Kansas. In his obituary, he had 11 siblings, ten died before him in 1946.

Jane Evans Ross' sisters and a brother also moved to Wapello, Iowa abt 1850 (other than Vashti and Elizabeth mentioned above). Polly Ann Evans Thompson died in 1896 there. Her sister Rhoda Evans Thompson was there in 1850 before moving to Oregon. Henry Evans was temporarily living in Wapello, Iowa where he married his wife Mary Thompson before moving to Nebraska. Her sister Sarah Evans Martin also moved to Wapello and died there in 1908, and her sister Nancy Evans Van Winkle was in Wapello in 1850 before moving back to Pike, Indiana.