GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN

A Free, Occasional, Online Summary of Items of Interest to Descendants of all Families of Graves, Greaves, Grieves, Grave, and other spelling variations Worldwide

Vol. 7, No. 6, June 28, 2005

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Visit the GFA web site at http://www.gravesfa.org

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CONTENTS:

** Changed Date for Graves/Greaves Gathering in Wrentham, MA

** Other Graves/Greaves Reunions

** Graves Family Association Website

** Graves/Greaves DNA Study

** Dues for Graves Family Association

** To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things

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CHANGED DATE FOR GRAVES/GREAVES GATHERING IN WRENTHAM, MA

The date of the Graves/Greaves gathering/cookout that was originally announced for Saturday, June 25, 2005, in Wrentham, Massachusetts, was changed because of lack of response for that date. Instead, the gathering will be held at the house of Ken and Sarah Graves, 20 Binney Circle, Wrentham, Massachusetts on Saturday, August 20, 2005. It will be 2-6 p.m., and will be held rain or shine. It will be a cookout with us providing hamburgers, hotdogs, and various beverages. Please bring some food to share (if you can), but if that’s not convenient, come anyway. We will be eating about 4 p.m. All descendants of all Graves and Greaves families are invited.

This will be an opportunity to learn more about your part of the family, how the DNA study is helping to find connections with other families and earlier ancestry, and what the Graves Family Association has planned for the future. There will even be a chance to participate in the DNA study that afternoon for those who are interested. You are also welcome to bring any of your own family information or memorabilia.

Please RSVP to let us know you are coming and what you will bring to ken.graves@gravesfa.org or call 508-384-8084.

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OTHER GRAVES REUNIONS

July 3, 2005, Chaires, Leon Co., Florida, Spence/Graves Family Reunion. If you are kin to Lucy Graves Spence, b. 1894 in Georgia, or to William Thomas Spence, b. 1883 in Terrell Co., GA, please come and visit with your kin. This is genealogy 915, ‑‑‑‑‑‑ Graves and Mary Fuller of GA & Russell Co., AL, possibly descended from Capt. Thomas Graves of VA. For information, contact Loretta Mayfield Isbell, aaesmawmaw@aol.com.

July 4, 2005, McCrory, Woodruff Co., AR. This reunion has been taking place for 50 years or longer, and is for the descendants of Gilbert James Graves and Nancy Ann Tanner of AR. There are usually 125-200 people attending. For information, contact Bonnie Graves, bgraves34@texoma.net.

July 16 & 17, 2005, Siler City, NC - The 3rd annual reunion of the descendants of Enos Graves and his siblings of Randolph Co., NC (genealogy 789). For information, contact Mary Cunningham, mary.cunningham@med.va.gov.

July 29 & 30, 2005, San Antonio, TX. Descendants of all Graves families are invited. I will be there. For more information, contact the organizer, Ron Graves, at gravesronn@cs.com.

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GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION WEBSITE

The major redesign of the website is progressing, but is not yet available for public viewing. However, a couple of minor changes have already been made.

A section on the main page has been added to list the recent changes and additions to the website, so you won’t have to hunt around to see what is new. The most frequent updates are to the DNA test results page and the descendant charts that can be accessed from that page. I try to make the appropriate updates to the page and charts within 24 hours of the time I receive new test results. The next most frequently updated pages are the genealogies. Usually, about once a month I add new or revised genealogies to the website.

It was suggested to me recently that I should add a feature to the website to enable the genealogies to be searched. Although it is not as good as I would like, there already is such a capability at the bottom of the main page. There will be an improved search capability in the future.

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GRAVES/GREAVES DNA STUDY

DESCENDANTS OF CAPT. THOMAS GRAVES OF VA, VIA JOHN², THOMAS³, JOHN⁴ (GEN. 169)

In adding DNA test results to the master results table and the charts, I noticed several puzzles that need to be solved for this part of the family. On the Capt. Thomas Graves of VA descendant chart, this is the part of the family where most of the boxes are yellow, with some of them green (in the master results table, this is part of the large red group).

First of all, there are several genealogies where the DNA test results exactly match those for the known gen. 169 descendants, but the connections are not known. These matching genealogies where the connections need to be found are Newton P. Graves of AL & LA (gen. 172, ID 28671), Elijah Graves and Agnes Lacy of KY (gen. 443, ID 1357), and Samuel Graves and Eleanor Wilson of NC, SC & TN (gen. 877, ID 20362).

In addition, if you look on the overall descendant chart, you will see that there is a line with a yellow block (ID 3699) descended from Thomas², via Joseph⁷, James Chitham⁸, William B.⁹, etc. Because this is a 25 of 25 match with the other yellow blocks, it is apparent that this line is in the wrong place. We need to find where the error is, and then move this line to the correct place.

HOW TO SIGN UP FOR THE DNA STUDY

For people descended from families or parts of families that do not yet have a DNA study participant, we still need Graves/Greaves men to take the test. To sign up, go to the GFA website at www.gravesfa.org, click on the DNA link at the top of the main page, then click on the link in the red-outlined box near the top of the next page. This will take you to a page on the Family Tree DNA page. Then just fill out the requested information, and your testing kit will be mailed to you the next day. The 25-marker test is recommended, and the 37-marker test is even better (for most participants).

UPGRADE TO 37 MARKERS FOR PEOPLE ALREADY TESTED

It would be helpful for almost all those who have been tested for 12 or 25 markers to upgrade to 37 markers. Contact me if you have any questions about this. To upgrade, go to your page on the Family Tree DNA website, click on the “Order tests” link toward the top of the page, and complete the requested information.

FINANCIAL HELP STILL NEEDED

All contributions toward the DNA study will be much appreciated. Many thanks to those of you who have already contributed. We especially need funding for testing of descendants in the British Isles, some of whom may be less willing or able to pay the cost. You may also want to consider sponsoring a relative as a way to get a test for your part of the family. In response to questions asked about the total amount of money needed over the next couple of years to sponsor this testing program, the need is in the thousands of dollars, but any contribution will be appreciated.

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DUES FOR GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION

Membership in the Graves Family Association has not been heavily promoted recently. This is because the Graves Family Newsletter is no longer being published, and the upgraded website is not yet available. However, expenses of running the Association continue, and we very much need your financial support. You can join or renew your membership (as discussed below) by mailing a check or using PayPal online. The regular membership is $20/year, and sustaining membership is $40/year.

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ABOUT THIS BULLETIN:

This bulletin is written and edited by Kenneth V. Graves, ken.graves@gravesfa.org. Ken Graves was also editor of the Graves Family Newsletter (no longer published). This bulletin will contain announcements and news of special interest to Graves descendants with Internet access. It will not contain queries, genealogies, photos, and the kind of in-depth articles that used to appear in the Graves Family Newsletter.

TO SUBMIT MATERIAL TO THIS BULLETIN:

Send any material you would like to have included in this bulletin to ken.graves@gravesfa.org. The editor reserves the right to accept, edit or reject any material submitted.

TO JOIN THE GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION:

If you do not already belong to the GFA, you can join by sending $20 per year to Graves Family Association, 20 Binney Circle, Wrentham, MA 02093 (more details on GFA website). Payment may also be sent electronically via PayPal by going to www.paypal.com and sending payment to gfa@gravesfa.org. Benefits include access to the “members only” section of the website, membership directory, and help with learning more about your Graves/Greaves family. The purpose of the GFA is to bring together as many descendants as possible to work toward learning more about the Graves/Greaves families, to help other descendants, and to instill pride in our ancestry.

COPYRIGHTS:

Although the contents of this bulletin are copyrighted by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves, you are hereby granted rights, unless otherwise specified, to re-distribute articles to other parties for non-commercial purposes only. Do not re-distribute the newsletter in its entirety.

TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE TO THIS BULLETIN:

To subscribe to this bulletin, send an e-mail message to ken.graves@gravesfa.org. Please include your full name. Your postal mailing address and information on your Graves/Greaves ancestry would also be appreciated, although not essential.

To remove your name from this subscription list, send an e-mail message to ken.graves@gravesfa.org asking to be removed.