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.
10, No. 11, Nov. 26, 2008
===============================================
Copyright
© 2008 by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves. All rights reserved.
Information
on how to start a free subscription to this bulletin and how to be removed from
the subscription list is at the end of this bulletin. If you received this bulletin directly, then you are already
subscribed.
Visit
the GFA web site at http://www.gravesfa.org
===============================================
CONTENTS:
**
General Comments
**
Trip to England in June 2009
**
African American Genealogies and Charts Added to Website
**
Questions and Answers about Capt. Thomas Graves of Virginia
**
New Discoveries from Our DNA Study
**
Special End-of-Year DNA Test Pricing Offer from Family Tree DNA
**
Offer of Free DNA Testing for Men in the U.K. and Ireland is Continuing
**
Using Google for Genealogy
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
===============================================
GENERAL
COMMENTS
The
most important item in this issue of the Bulletin is about our trip to England
in June 2009. The cost is expected to
be significantly less than previously announced because of the improving
currency exchange rate. You need to
send your registration and deposit before the end of this year to reserve your
place.
This
issue also announces a special lower-price DNA testing offer for new customers
from Family Tree DNA, and extends the offer of free DNA testing for men in the
U.K. and Ireland.
And
finally, there is a lengthy discussion of the difficult issue of the identity,
ancestry, and descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves of Virginia. This issue is far from being settled, but
perhaps this article will motivate some of you to try to help resolve the
questions about this part of the family.
===============================================
TRIP
TO ENGLAND IN JUNE 2009
Have
you always wanted to go to England but thought it was just a dream? Are you descended from a Graves or Greaves
family in England, and would you love to visit the places they lived and meet
some of their descendants who still live there? Now is your chance! The
Graves Family Association tour of England will be June 4-16, 2009, starting and
ending in London.
We
will be visiting places of scenic and historical interest, as well as places of
significance to your ancestors. This
will not be a research trip, and we do not plan to schedule time in archives
and libraries, although you always have the option to go off on your own for a
day. In the 2009 tour, we will be
visiting a few of the same places as in 1995, but in no way will this be a
repeat of that trip. The present plans
are for the tour to include Keswick and the beautiful Lake District, the
Hertford/Nazeing area, York, Lincolnshire, and London. We are also considering visiting other
places including King’s Norton and Moseley Hall (now part of Birmingham),
Mickleton, Beeley, and Buckingham.
Meetings with members of the various Graves and Greaves families will be
an important part of the tour. See also
the discussion on the website under Activities/Future Events.
Even
though the present financial crisis is impacting everyone, the good news is
that the exchange rate has greatly improved in favor of the U.S. dollar. We now expect the cost of the tour to be
several hundred dollars less that previously advertised. The exact price reduction will be announced
early next year. As a start on that
savings, if you sign up by Dec. 31, you can deduct an earlybird discount of
$150 (up from $75 before). The charge
for those who have already sent their deposits will be adjusted later.
The
tour brochure and the registration form are on the GFA website in PDF format,
and they are also available from me through the mail. In addition to the places mentioned in the tour brochure, we will
be going to Beeley Hilltop and perhaps other places close to Beeley. There will also be opportunity for anyone
who wants to visit other places during the tour to go off on their own and
rejoin the tour later. If you want to
visit a specific place or do research on your own, you will be able to do that.
Spread
the word about the tour. Invite your
relatives and any friends who might like to go along. We would really like to have as many people on the tour as
possible, especially since it will probably reduce the cost for all participants. It is also very important that we have
enough participants to make the tour profitable for the tour operator – it
would be a shame to have to cancel the trip because of not having enough
people. Let me know if you want more
tour brochures or want me to send some directly to anyone else.
Remember
that you will get a $150 discount if you register by Dec. 31, 2008, reducing
the initial deposit to only $100 (from $250).
===============================================
AFRICAN
AMERICAN GENEALOGIES AND CHARTS ADDED TO WEBSITE
I have completed and updated four Graves
genealogies for African American families of Caswell Co., NC. These are for the families of Warren Graves
and Henriette ------ of SC and Caswell Co. & Rockingham Co., NC (genealogy
218), which has two DNA tests, James Graves and Melvina ------ of Caswell Co.,
NC (genealogy 22), Parents of Harry Graves and Aquilla Graves of Caswell Co.,
NC (genealogy 455), and Parents of John Graves and Samuel Graves of Caswell
Co., NC (genealogy 658). It is not
known whether some of these families (and others of Caswell Co.) are descended
from a common Graves ancestor or from more than one male ancestor. The family of Warren Graves (genealogy 218)
is descended from an African male ancestor, as shown by the tested haplotype
being E1b1a rather than a European haplotype.
I would very much like to get more information and DNA tests for these
and other African American families.
I
have put versions of all 4 genealogies with accompanying charts on the Graves
Family Association website. You can go directly to the information on either
the Charts page at http://www.gravesfa.org/charts.html#Caswell
or on the African American page at http://www.gravesfa.org/african.html.
===============================================
QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS ABOUT CAPT. THOMAS GRAVES OF VIRGINIA
What we do know:
Capt.
Thomas Graves is of great interest to many people (especially Americans)
because he was the first settler in America with the Graves (or variant
spelling) surname, and many people have claimed him as their ancestor. He arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, probably
in Oct. 1608, in the ship "Mary and
Margaret" with Captain Christopher Newport's second supply to the new
colony. Genealogy 169 on the GFA
website gives much more information about this Thomas Graves and his
descendants.
What we don’t know and what we do know to be wrong:
However, we don’t know where he was from, who his parents were, or
anything about his earlier ancestry. He
may have been living in Dublin, Ireland at the time of his sailing to Virginia,
but no confirmation of that has ever been found. Although it was once believed that we knew much about his
descendants, our DNA study has shown us that much of what we thought was
correct is apparently wrong.
The previous findings of many excellent researchers (including
Mrs. P. W. Hiden, William Montgomery Sweeney, and others) over many years were that
Capt. Thomas Graves was the father of three sons (John, Thomas, and Francis)
and three daughters (Verlinda, Ann, and Katherine). Because it is easier to use DNA to trace male ancestry than
female ancestry, the male lines from the three purported sons have been
extensively researched, and the Y‑DNA of many male descendants through
all-male lines has been tested. It was
very surprising to find that there were actually 4 male ancestors rather than
only one for those who had all been believed to descend from Capt. Thomas
Graves. The direct male ancestor was
different for (1) son John Graves through his son Ralph, (2) son John Graves
through his son Thomas, (3) son Thomas Graves, and (4) son Francis Graves. How could this be? Surely something was seriously wrong! The possibility that there was something wrong with the DNA
testing was considered but ruled out by testing numerous descendants of many
lines. Therefore, the problem had to be
with the documentation.
But the descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves have been researched by
some of the best professional and amateur genealogists available. How could they be wrong? Well, we know that much documentation in
Virginia and elsewhere in the southern U.S. is missing, destroyed during the
U.S. Civil War or by other means. We
also know that outstanding genealogists have sometimes disagreed on the most
likely interpretation of the data that is available. There is no question that the available documented evidence is
insufficient and the conclusions may be wrong.
(Note: Our experience and that of other family groups has serious
implications for most other southern U.S. genealogies. There are undoubtedly many, many erroneous
lineages that have been accepted by the DAR, the Jamestowne Society, First
Families of Virginia, and many other heritage societies.)
Then I was asked, couldn’t part of the problem be that there was
an adoption or an extramarital affair that was never documented. Yes, we know that there have been many
adoptions, extramarital affairs, name changes, and other events for which there
is no available documentation. However,
in this case, there are 4 different male ancestors, and 3 of the DNA signatures
exactly match 3 different, known, unrelated Graves families. How likely is it that Capt. Thomas Graves
would have adopted or been otherwise closely connected with two other unrelated
Graves families? It seems very
improbable! The descendants of his son
Thomas are the only ones whose Y-DNA signature does not match with a known
Graves or Greaves family, so it is possible that he may have had a different
father but still been part of the family of Capt. Thomas Graves.
So where does that leave us?
The descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves via son John and his son
Ralph are related to Thomas Graves of Hartford, CT (genealogy 168), and the
paper document trail seems to be fairly solid, so they have been left in
genealogy 169.
The descendants of son Francis Graves are related to John Graves
of Concord, MA (genealogy 166), Rear Adm. Thomas Graves of Charlestown, MA
(genealogy 28), John Greaves of St. Mary’s Co., MD (genealogy 247), and many
others. This part of the family has
been removed from gen. 169 and made genealogy 220. In addition to the argument in the preceding paragraph, there is
an appendix in gen. 169 which shows that there is considerable question about
the documentary proof. The paper
document trail seems to be nowhere near as solid as that in the preceding
paragraph.
The descendants of son John and his son Thomas are related to
Thomas Greaves of Northamptonshire & Buckinghamshire, England (genealogy
47). Documentation has also been found
that this part of the family arrived in Virginia in the late 1600’s and was not
descended from Capt. Thomas Graves. It
is now genealogy 270.
Genealogy 169 for Capt. Thomas Graves now consists of the
descendants of his son John through his son Ralph, and the descendants of his
son Thomas. The only way that the
descendants of son Thomas can be thought to descend from Capt. Thomas Graves is
to assume there was something such as an extramarital event or adoption.
The genealogies of all these Graves families that were formerly
part of genealogy 169 are being compiled, in an effort to get them as complete
as possible. It is interesting to note
that genealogy 270 is presently 2000 pages (without the index), genealogy 169
is 756 pages, and genealogy 220 is 310 pages.
It is surprising and somewhat puzzling that most of what used to be in
genealogy 169 has been proven not to be descended from Capt. Thomas Graves, and
is now in genealogy 270. It is also
surprising and a little disturbing that we know such a relatively small amount
about the descendants of the lines other than genealogy 270.
If
you go to the website for GHOTES (Genealogy & Historie Of The Eastern
Shore) at http://www.esva.net/ghotes/,
you will find a lot of very interesting information. Of special interest is the interactive map section which allows
users to see who lived where by tracing property ownership. You can see the part of this that pertains
to the family of Capt. Thomas Graves by clicking on the link on the GHOTES page
for Northampton Co., and then selecting any of the 3 map sections. The sources for this are Whitelaw, deeds,
wills and other sources.
(Ralph
T. Whitelaw was the author of Virginia's Eastern Shore: A History of
Northampton and Accomack Counties.
It is a two-volume set of books containing a history of the two
counties, Accomack and Northampton, comprising the land in Virginia which lies
east of the Chesapeake Bay. The Eastern Shore was first settled in the early
1600's mainly by the English.
Whitelaw was a little different from most
historians in that he wrote on the history of the land and its ownership as
opposed to the history of people and their accomplishments. He traced the
ownership of the each piece of land from its first patent in the 1600s to the
mid 1800s. This is not a hard and fast rule but it was as far as it was
practical for him to go. Over the
several centuries through inheritance and sales the land was broken down into
smaller and smaller pieces making it totally unfeasible for him to continue
beyond that point. In some few cases he did continue but only because of the
ease in doing so.)
The
information in Whitelaw shows Capt. Thomas Graves, his wife Katherine, his 3
daughters, Verlinda, Ann and Katherine, and his son John. It does not seem to show his son
Thomas. Whether it shows a son Francis
is open to question. It lists a Francis
Graves, but it also lists Frances Trewitt and George Truhett, who may have been
the daughter and son-in-law of Capt. Thomas Graves. Several conclusions could be drawn from this information. One possibility is that Thomas was not a son
of Capt. Thomas Graves, since he doesn’t appear in Whitelaw, and another
possibility is that he was an adopted or illegitimate child. Regarding Frances/Francis Graves, one
possibility is that this was a daughter Frances who married George Trewitt, and
the name of Francis Graves is Whitelaw was a misspelling of Frances. Another possibility is that there was indeed
a son Francis, but he wasn’t the same person as the Francis with
descendants. To try to resolve some of
the questions, a close look at Whitelaw is needed (I haven’t actually read
Whitelaw and the original documents that he looked at), plus more research, and
perhaps additional DNA testing.
All
comments and any suggestions for further research will be appreciated.
===============================================
NEW
DISCOVERIES FROM OUR DNA STUDY
The
most recent results include:
·
A
second descendant of genealogy 592 (Edward Greaves and Mary ------ of
Nottingham, England), who exactly matches the results for the descendant who
was previously tested. But they don’t
match any other family.
·
A
descendant of genealogy 441 (John R. Graves and Hannah Corder of TN, KY &
IL), who is part of the group that includes genealogies 13 and 148, probably
descended from the Graves families of Cambridgeshire, England.
We continue
to need much more information. Men with
the Graves/Greaves surname who are descended from families that have not yet
been tested should participate in the DNA study. The offer of free DNA testing for those in the U.K. and Ireland
is continuing, as discussed in the next article.
===============================================
SPECIAL END-OF-YEAR DNA TEST PRICING OFFER FROM FAMILY TREE DNA
Family Tree DNA (the company we use for most of our DNA testing)
has just announced that effective November 26th, 2008 they will institute
special pricing for new-kit-purchasing participants.
The products that will be offered at the special prices are:
|
Y-DNA37 |
$119 |
|
Y-DNA37+mtDNAPlus |
$199 |
|
Y-DNA67 |
$218 |
|
Y-DNA67+mtDNAPlus |
$308 |
|
mtDNAPlus |
$139 |
|
Full
Genomic mtDNA |
$395 |
|
SuperDNA |
$613 |
This offer is good until December 31st, 2008 for kits ordered and
paid for by that time.
To take advantage of this offer, the easiest way is to go to the
main page of the Graves Family Association website at www.gravesfa.org, scroll down to the DNA
Study section, click on the link for “How to Sign Up”, and follow the
instructions. The 37-marker Y-DNA test
is the one we usually recommend.
===============================================
OFFER
OF FREE DNA TESTING FOR MEN IN THE U.K. AND IRELAND IS CONTINUING
Because
it is so important to get descendants of the families of Greaves, Graves,
Grieves, and other spellings in the U.K. and Ireland to take part in our DNA
study, we will continue to pay the full cost for Y-DNA testing for male
descendants in the U.K. and Ireland with any variation of the surname who
provide enough ancestral information to be helpful to the study. and who are
not too closely related to someone who has already been tested. It is our goal to be able to connect all the
families that are related, and DNA testing is the only tool that will let us
know for sure that families share a common ancestor. Please help to find people who are willing to be tested.
===============================================
USING
GOOGLE FOR GENEALOGY
A
new book called Google Your Family Tree, by Daniel M. Lynch, was
recently published. Information about
it is at www.googleyourfamilytree.com. It is 352 pages, soft cover. I do not have a copy and am not necessarily
recommending it. However, it might be
of interest to some of you. The next
two paragraphs are quotes from their website.
“Google
is the most powerful tool available for online genealogy research. With more
than 20 billion pages included in Google's index of the Web, it's likely
that some of these pages contain clues about your ancestors, but finding
these pages requires an understanding of filtering and other techniques to
realize the full value of this free online service!
This
new book helps
you understand and use dozens of specialized commands to dramatically
improve your search skills. Many of these commands seem custom built to
help with our pursuit of our family heritage. The great news is that most are easy
to master and perfectly suited for finding people, places, and events. A
special command even lets you narrow results by date range to filter
results more quickly.”
===============================================
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
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