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.
11, No. 9, Sept. 30, 2009
===============================================
Copyright
© 2009 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
**
Communicating with Ken Graves
**
Mitochondrial DNA (for Maternal Ancestry)
**
New Developments in the Near Future
**
Promoting and Publicizing the Graves Family Association
**
Interesting Articles and Subjects Worth Revisiting in Old GF Bulletins
**
Another Book About the Graves Family of the Donner Party
**
Occupations of Our Ancestors and Their Associates
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
===============================================
GENERAL
COMMENTS
As
usual, some things are happening much too slowly. I am aware that I have not been able to keep the DNA test
results summary and analysis up-to-date, and that will be taken care of
soon. Also, the web site revision
is proceeding, but slowly. Things are always more difficult and time-consuming
than I would prefer.
In
this issue are a couple of articles about some of the things we can do to
publicize the Graves Family Association and attract new members. I will always appreciate your comments
and suggestions on this subject.
===============================================
COMMUNICATING
WITH KEN GRAVES
Since
I have more than one email address that I use, I was not aware until a couple
of days ago that no messages sent to my main email address (ken.graves@gravesfa.org) were getting
through. The problem seems to be
fixed now, but any messages sent from Sept. 17 through today, Sept. 30, may
have been lost, so they should be resent.
As
I have mentioned before, I do not have time to answer all correspondence, even
when my email is working correctly.
I am trying to find a way to remedy that situation, but have not yet
found a solution. You can always
call me on the phone, or use the messaging option on the Contact page of the
GFA website.
===============================================
MITOCHONDRIAL
DNA (FOR MATERNAL ANCESTRY)
Although
we have been mainly interested in Y-DNA testing because that is how we have
been best able to investigate our Graves/Greaves surname ancestry, many of you
have taken a mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) test or may do so in the future. One way to learn more about what your
mtDNA test results mean and find connections with others through that line is
to join a Mitochondrial Haplogroup Project. To help with that, the following commentary was written by
Colin Ferguson, posted by him on the ISOGG mailing list, and presented here
with his permission.
A surname project is not a suitable place to
explore your maternal origins since the surname with mtDNA generally changes
every generation. A better choice is a Haplogroup Project since everyone in
such a project shares a common ancestor. Thus once your mtDNA results are in I
suggest you join a mtDNA Haplogroup Project that corresponds to your mtDNA
Haplogroup. The principal advantage to joining an mtDNA
Haplogroup
Project is that your results are compared to everyone in that project whereas
if you are in a surname project your results are compared to those same people
only if they set their preferences to "I want my matches to be set against
the entire database."
To find mtDNA projects, go to your personal page
at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), and click on Join Projects on the left hand
side. Scroll down until you see mtDNA haplogroups. A long list of projects that you are
eligible to join will come up. Click on U (or whatever your haplogroup
is). There may be a number of projects for your haplogroup, so be sure to join
the appropriate one. For reference
sake, here is a list of all the mtDNA Haplogroup Projects: http://www.worldfamilies.net/reference_mtDNA
It was also suggested on that same list by
Roberta Estes that people be encouraged to browse the various
geographic
projects and find one (or more than one) that might be suitable for them
too. She mentioned that her
Cumberland Gap project is extremely popular with folks whose families were in
that area and they have had several genealogy success stories with that. There
are also country projects, region projects, and more.
===============================================
NEW
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE NEAR FUTURE
Some
of the things that I am considering implementing on the GFA website are
contests and map displays, as mentioned below. Let me know if you have any thoughts about these, and any
suggestions about how to do them successfully.
Contests
§
to create best T-shirt design
§
to create best bumper sticker and car window decal
§
best family (or GFA) song (recordings will be put on the GFA website)
§
best family (or GFA) video
Map
display of locations of families and family members. Ability to click on a family and see email addresses and
locations, or click on a location and see families or people who are there.
===============================================
PROMOTING
AND PUBLICIZING THE GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION
In
the previous issue of the Bulletin we discussed social networking websites and
their possible use to promote the GFA and bring together Graves and Greaves
descendants. This article is about
the possible use of video to publicize the GFA. One of the most effective ways of generating interest among
people is the use of what is called viral video (named for spreading like a
virus). According to Wikipedia, A
viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity through the
process of Internet sharing, typically through email or instant messaging,
blogs and other media sharing websites. Viral videos are often humorous in
nature and include televised comedy sketches, amateur video clips, and web-only
productions. Some "eyewitness" events have also been caught on video
and have "gone viral".
With the proliferation of camera phones, many
videos are being shot by amateurs on these devices. The availability of cheap
video editing and publishing tools allows video shot on mobile phones to be
edited and distributed virally both on the web by email or website, and between
phones by Bluetooth or MMS. These consumer-shot videos are typically
non-commercial videos intended for viewing by friends or family.
There may be potential publicity opportunities
for the GFA with both viral videos and some of the more traditional
websites. I will welcome any ideas
that anyone has.
Create and Post Videos
Videos
could be posted on the following websites:
·
GFA website
·
YouTube
·
Roots Television at http://www.rootstelevision.com
A
Graves family video was recently created by Roger Graves of Michigan and posted
on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=smokies5&view=videos.
Roots Television
Their
website states:
“We’ve
been perplexed for a long time. These days, there’s a horse channel, a wine
channel, a sailing channel, a poker channel, a guitar channel, and even a
shipwreck channel. So why, we wondered, isn’t there a channel servicing the
millions of people interested in genealogy and family history? After all, there
are many that claim that tracing roots is the second most popular hobby out
there.
Well,
now there’s a channel for us.
Roots Television™ is by and for avid genealogists and family history
lovers of all stripes. Whether
you’re an archives hound, a scrapbooker, a cousin collector, a roots-travel
enthusiast, a Civil War re-enactor, a DNA fan, a reunion instigator, a
sepia-toned photos zealot, an Internet-junkie, a history buff, an old country
traditions follower, a cemetery devotee, a story-teller, a multicultural food
aficionado, a flea market and antiques fanatic, a family documentarian, a
nostalgia nut, or a mystery-solver, Roots Television™ has something for you --
and that “something” is quality programming.”
Roots
Television offers free genealogy and family history videos. Topics include
Conferences, How-to, DNA, African Roots, British research, Irish family
history, Hispanic roots, Libraries, Archives, Reunions, Photo Restoration and
more
To
submit videos to Roots Television: If you’re passionate about any aspect of
genealogy, heritage or history -- from cemeteries to the Civil War to DNA -- we
want to hear from you! Now you can submit your own video to RootsTube. Just follow the simple instructions on
their site or upload a sample to Google Video or YouTube and email us with the
link.
===============================================
INTERESTING
ARTICLES AND SUBJECTS WORTH REVISITING IN OLD GF BULLETINS
I
sometimes find it interesting and helpful to reread old articles in the Graves
Family Bulletin. Some that you
might find of interest are listed below, with the title, volume and issue
number, and the date of the bulletin.
The
Wayback Machine, 10-3, Feb. 25, 2008
Identifying
People In Family Pictures, 10-3, Feb. 25, 2008
Keeping
the Same Email Address Forever, 10-10, Sept. 4, 2008
Articles about the frequency
& location of Surnames:
Frequency
of Graves, Greaves and Variant Surnames in the U.S. and the U.K., 7-5, May 30,
2005
New
Website Maps Surnames Worldwide, 11-2, March 29, 2009
Using
Google for Genealogy, 10-11, Nov. 26, 2008
Articles about Researching
and Identifying Capt. Thomas Graves of VA and His Descendants:
The
Puzzle of the Ancestry and Descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA, 7-11, Dec.
15, 2005
Francis
Graves of Gloucester Co. & Essex Co., VA, and the Need for DNA
Participants, 7-12, Dec. 23, 2005
More
on Francis Graves of Gloucester Co. & Essex Co., VA, and His Descendants,
7-13, Dec. 29, 2005
Plans
for Finding Ancestry of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA in England, 8-7, June 1, 2006
Capt.
Thomas Graves of VA, and Other Graves Families of VA, 8-8, Aug. 24, 2006
Capt.
Thomas Graves of VA: Who Was He and Who Were His Descendants, 9-5, May 31, 2007
Follow-up
to Discussion of Descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA, 6-9, June 9, 2007
Capt.
Thomas Graves of Virginia, 10-1, Jan. 2, 2008
Changes
to the Genealogy for Capt. Thomas Graves of VA, 10-4, March 31, 2008
Questions
and Answers About Capt. Thomas Graves of VA, 10-11, Nov. 26, 2008
More
on the Family of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA, 11-2, March 29, 2009
===============================================
ANOTHER
BOOK ABOUT THE GRAVES FAMILY OF THE DONNER PARTY
The
Donner party is the group of pioneers traveling by wagon train to California
who became stranded in the mountains.
The Graves members of this group were the family of Franklin Ward
Graves, descended from immigrant Thomas Graves of Hartford, CT (genealogy
168). In the spring of 1846,
Franklin Ward Graves sold his land to move to California. He died of
starvation and exposure before dawn on Christmas day, 1846, in the Sierra
Nevada mountains someplace west of what is now called Donner Pass, as part of
the ill-fated Donner Party. Peggy
Newsome, a descendant of genealogy 168, recently told me about a new book, The Indifferent Stars Above, by Daniel
James Brown, that is about Franklin’s daughter, Sarah Graves, and the Donner
party.
===============================================
OCCUPATIONS OF OUR ANCESTORS AND THEIR
ASSOCIATES
Learning
about our ancestors and our extended family is usually much more interesting
for most of us if we understand what their times and their lives were
like. Just recording names, dates
and places doesn’t tell us much about the people (and can be rather boring). One aspect of their lives was their
occupations, some of which were unusual to us, and some of which had names we
might not recognize today.
Researching ancestral jobs and occupations can teach you a great deal about the people who make up your family tree, and what life was like for them. An individual's occupation may give insight into their social status or to their place of origin. Occupations can also be used to distinguish between two individuals of the same name. Certain skilled occupations or trades may have been passed down from father to son, providing indirect evidence of a family relationship. It's even possible that your surname derives from the occupation of a distant ancestor.
The occupation of an individual can often be found in census records, city directories, obituaries, and elsewhere.
If you find an occupational term that you aren’t
familiar with, a search of the internet will usually provide a definition. One list of old occupations is called
“Glossary of Old Occupations & Trades” and is found at http://genealogy.about.com/library/glossary/bl_occupations.htm. Another source is "A Dictionary of
Occupational Terms", produced by The Open University, based on the 1921
U.K. census, and published by the Great Britain Ministry of Labour in
1927. This defines 29,106 terms
covering 16,837 different occupations of people who worked in the nineteenth
and early twentieth century. The
CD-ROM edition is produced by the OSFACH Research Group of the Open University,
ref. CDR0088.
===============================================
ABOUT THIS BULLETIN:
This
bulletin is written and edited by Kenneth V. Graves, ken.graves@gravesfa.org.
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
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and sending payment to gfa@gravesfa.org.
COPYRIGHTS:
Although
the contents of this bulletin are copyrighted by the Graves Family Association
and Kenneth V. Graves, you are hereby granted permission, unless otherwise
specified, to re-distribute part or all to other parties for non-commercial
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