Question

my grandmother says we are related to sullivan ballou, how do I test?

Answer 1

Aside from researching your family ancestry the traditional way, you can take a DNA test(s) - (autosomal, Y and/or mitochondrial) in hopes of finding a match. For this to work you will need to be able to compare your results with a known descendant of Sullivan Ballou. DNA testing is available through a number of companies. Some of the most popular are FamilyFinder, 23 and Me & Ancestry. However, there are other good companies that offer testing. See the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical_DNA_test

Comments

The challenge with DNA testing as it relates to Sullivan Ballou is that he died in the Civil War, and his two children, Edgar and William, only had one child between them, Kathryn.  Kathryn Ballou never had children and died in the 1920s, so he does not have any living descendants.

His grandfather (Ziba) and great-grandafther (Noah) each had several children though, so you could potentially find cousins from these Ballou relatives.  There are many records on Ziba and Noah and their respective descendants.

Answer 2

I responded to this message privately, but I thought I would past here as well since there may be others trying to find a connection to Sullivan Ballou.

The Ballou family is actually pretty easy (and interesting) to study, given their long history in Rhode Island.  

Let me know about your Ballou family line and how far back you have been able to trace them, and I can hopefully point you in the right direction on where to look next.