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. 4, March 31, 2008
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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
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CONTENTS:
**
General Comments
**
Future Family Reunions
**
New Discoveries from Our DNA Study
**
Female Lineages and Mitochondrial DNA Testing
**
Changes to the Genealogy for Capt. Thomas Graves of VA
**
Connecting Sarah Jane Graves and Thomas Graves of Chesterfield Co., SC to
Genealogy 270
**
Changes to the GFA Website
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
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GENERAL
COMMENTS
One
of the most significant items in this bulletin is the changes to the genealogy
for Capt. Thomas Graves of VA. Although
it has been apparent for a while that the John2, Thomas3,
John4 line was not descended from Capt. Thomas Graves, that has
finally been made official, and that family has been put in a separate
genealogy.
In
addition, several changes and new features have been added to the website. I expect that there will be other changes
over the next several months, some of greater importance. Stay tuned!
For
those of us in the northern hemisphere, spring has finally arrived. We look forward to doing more of those
outdoor activities that many of us enjoy.
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FUTURE
FAMILY REUNIONS
There
will be a Graves-Spiers-Williams family reunion on Saturday, April 26, 2008,
9 AM until at least 6 PM, at the Ono Grange Hall, Ono, Shasta, CA, 12 miles
west of Redding. This is for the
descendants of David Rice Graves (descended from John Graves of
Northamptonshire, England & VA, gen. 270) who took his family from Kentucky
to California in 1857. For more
information, contact Emma L. Erickson, 3353 NW Crest Dr., Corvallis, OR 97330,
541-753-4329, erickson8us@yahoo.com.
Jim
and Rachel Graves, owners of Graves’ Mountain Lodge in Syria, VA, will be
hosting a reunion at the lodge on July 18-20, 2008. This will be for all descendants of Paschal
Graves, 8th generation descendant of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA
(genealogy 169). To let them know of
your interest or for questions, contact them or Sharon S. Carter at Graves’
Mountain Lodge, Route 670, Syria, VA 22743, phone 1-800-420-4231 or
540-923-4231.
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NEW
DISCOVERIES FROM OUR DNA STUDY
We
have several upgrades to existing Y-DNA test in recent weeks, but none of them
provide any dramatic new information yet.
The only new set of test results have been for genealogy 287 for Thomas
Graves of England, Canada & VT.
This result did not match any others, and there is no way to know
whether it is representative of this entire Graves family or not.
===============================================
FEMALE
LINEAGES AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA TESTING
Now
that we have discovered that the traditional structure of the descendants of
Capt. Thomas Graves of Virginia (genealogy 169) is wrong, we need to try to use
all available information and tools to reconstruct the correct family
relationships. This also applies to
other families where historical records are incomplete or nonexistent.
One
of the tools we have is mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing. Both males and females can have their mtDNA
tested. The results will show the
direct, all-female lineage from an ancestral female. In the early days of DNA testing, mtDNA test results would only
show “deep” ancestry, that is, your female ancestor thousands of years
ago. With new techniques and more complete
analysis, a much more complete profile can be obtained, and much more recent
ancestry can be determined. Therefore,
if two or more people who are thought by traditional genealogy to descend from
a common ancestor have an exact mtDNA match, there is now much more confidence
that the relationship is correct.
For
the family of Capt. Thomas Graves, we would like to prove that all his
daughters share the same mtDNA. To do
this, we need to find at least one descendant (and preferably more) to be tested
from each daughter via an all-female line.
The tested descendant can be either male or female. In addition to that, we would like to find
an all female line from a possible sister of the wife of Capt. Thomas Graves
(believed to be Katherine Croshaw) and have one or more of those descendants
tested also. There are also other
relationships within the Capt. Thomas Graves family that could be tested using
mtDNA testing. To this end, we need to
create a more complete chart of female lines of descent (see the Capt. Thomas
Graves section on the charts page for the presently known female lineages).
Most
of you who are descended from one of the daughters of Capt. Thomas Graves have
a line of descent that is not all-female.
You can be of great help by doing research to find and prove additional
descendants, especially via all-female lineages.
Another
example of helpful and needed research is in the newly created genealogy of
John Graves of Northamptonshire, England and VA (genealogy 270), recently split
off from genealogy 169. In this, Thomas
Graves (b. 1691) had two wives, and daughters by both wives. However, it is not known for sure which
daughters were by his first wife. If we
could find all-female lines of descendant from any daughter in question and get
a descendant DNA-tested, we should have the answer to that question.
For
other Graves/Greaves families, we can use similar approaches to prove
relationships. For example, some
families start with a female Graves/Greaves ancestor. If we can find a possible pair of parents, and then find a
descendant of an all-female lineage from that daughter, we can test that
descendant and a descendant by an all-female lineage of the female ancestor of
interest, we could get strong evidence of whether they were sisters.
===============================================
CHANGES
TO THE GENEALOGY OF CAPT. THOMAS GRAVES OF VA
The
family of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA (genealogy 169) has been extensively
discussed because for many years it has been considered to be the ancestry of
most Graves family members in the southern United States. It has been determined that the ancestor of
much of that family (the part previously thought to descend via Thomas1,
John2, Thomas3, John4) actually arrived about
1700 or in the late 1600’s, and was descended from the Greaves family of
Northamptonshire, England. This has
been proven by our DNA study and is supported by the Bible record of Solomon
Graves.
Therefore,
we have now removed that portion of the family, starting with John4
as the original immigrant to America, and put it in a separate genealogy 270
titled John Graves/Greaves of Northamptonshire, England and VA. You can see both that genealogy and the
revised genealogy 169 for Capt. Thomas Graves of VA on the GFA website.
===============================================
CONNECTING
SARAH JANE GRAVES AND THOMAS GRAVES OF CHESTERFIELD CO., SC TO GENEALOGY 270
Charles
L. Purvis of Thomasville, NC, has been trying to find his Graves ancestry for
many years. He is descended from David
W. Graves of Chesterfield Co., SC in genealogy 558. He believes David was a grandson of Richard Graves (b. 1765), son
of Robert Graves (b. 1735-1740), of genealogy 270 (the newly-created genealogy
mentioned in the preceding article). A
summary of some of his reasoning and information is now on the GFA website,
accessible from the charts page. You
can see his information and discussion at http://www.gravesfa.org/gen558discussion.htm,
and the tentative link on the chart at http://www.gravesfa.org/chart270.pdf. He would appreciate help and feedback from
others.
===============================================
CHANGES
TO THE GFA WEBSITE
Addition of Change Detection
Capability
A change detection feature has been
added to three pages of the website: the main page, the charts page, and the current news page. It is at the top
of the sidebar, but may be moved later. This is an experiment, and will allow
you to be notified whenever a change is made to this page. To use it, just
click on the OK, enter your email address, and follow instructions. Try it and let me know what you think. If this works out, it will be put on other
pages also.
Addition of Two More Profiles to the Famous Family Members Page
A
profile and pictures of Anthony Robert (“Tony”) Greaves, Baron Greaves,
have been added to the page of notable family members. He is a UK politician and a Liberal Democrat
member of the House of Lords. His
ancestry is not known.
The
second addition is for Jay Norwood (“Ding”) Darling, well-known
editorial cartoonist, head of the predecessor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Services, and an American conservation hero.
One of his achievements was the creation of the Federal Duck Stamp
Program. He was descended from Thomas
Graves of Hartford, CT (genealogy 168).
I
became aware that “Ding” Darling was a Graves descendant because Diana Turner
sent me information about genealogy 418 for Diantha M. Groves/Graves and
Timothy Darling of Cortland Co., NY.
This information was from papers in the collection of Jay Norwood
Darling, and proved that Diantha was a Groves and not a Graves. However, it turned out that Timothy Darling
was a Graves descendant. In addition,
“Ding” Darling was of special interest to me because the national wildlife
refuge on Sanibel Island on the west coast of Florida (near where we spend a
month each winter) is named for him.
All
pages of the website have a contact strip at the bottom. In this strip is the address of the
Association and a link to go to the contact page. This segment for all pages has now been made consistent. In addition, the contact page has been
changed, and now contains an Alternative Contact Method. Partly because of anti-spam efforts by
Internet Service Providers, many messages are not getting delivered to all of
us. If you have any reason to believe
that perhaps I have not received a message you sent, this is a way to be sure
you reach me.
The
charts page and certain genealogies and charts have been changed as a result of
splitting out genealogy 270 from genealogy 169, as discussed in a preceding
article in this bulletin.
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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
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To
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