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. 4, No. 3, Sept. 24, 2001

 

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Copyright © 2001 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:

 

**Graves Family Newsletter

**John Graves Book and Other Graves Family Books

**Graves Family Association Web Site

**DNA Analysis Project

**Miscellaneous Stuff

**To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things

 

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GRAVES FAMILY NEWSLETTER

 

The June issue of the Graves Family Newsletter is presently at the printer.  I expect it to be mailed by the end of this week.  The newsletter is published 6 times per year and contains information on all the various Graves and Greaves families, queries, and other items of interest.

 

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JOHN GRAVES BOOK AND OTHER GRAVES FAMILY BOOKS

 

I have announced that the JOHN GRAVES of Concord, MA book will be ready for shipment by the end of October.  However, that date may not be met.  This project is like one of the so-called laws of business, "If anything can go wrong it will."  The book is more than 1600 pages and contains over 200 photos, and it is being produced and sent to the publisher entirely electronically.

 

I will mention some of the problems that I have encountered with this project that may help explain the long delays.  I was first told that I had to use software other than the Microsoft Word that I had used to create the genealogy.  So I went out and purchased Adobe PageMaker and learned how to use it, only to discover that it couldn't handle footnotes and certain other requirements.  After returning to Word and indexing all names and places, I discovered that the Linotronic printer (and the printer driver) required by the printing company changed the pagination of the book.  This meant that all the photos had to be repositioned in the entire book, and the indexing had to be completely redone.  That re-indexing is now almost complete, and the book will be sent to the printer after that, probably by the end of this month.  If they can do all of their processing in a month, we may still make the end of October, but it may take a little longer than that (if no other problem occurs).

 

The price of the book is $75 (including postage), and it can still be ordered from me.  Checks for this and all other books should be made payable to Kenneth V. Graves.

 

A list of all books that have been published and a discussion of what will be published in the future is on the GFA website.  However, since I am often asked about the books, here are the ones that are available now.  More about them is on the website.

 

ROBERT GRAVES of Anson Co., NC and Chesterfield Co., SC (descended from Capt. Thomas Graves of VA)

Published in 1980, 408 pages, $26.00.

 

SAMUEL GRAVES of Lynn, MA

Published in 1985, 446 pages, $36.00.

 

THOMAS GRAVES of Hartford, CT and Hatfield, MA

Published in 1985, 710 pages, $46.00.

 

GRAVES FAMILIES OF THE WORLD

Published in 1994, 509 pages, $41.00.

 

REAR ADMIRAL THOMAS GRAVES of Charlestown, MA

Published in 1994, 267 pages, $23.00.

 

DEACON GEORGE GRAVES of Hartford, CT

Published March 1995, 446 pages, $35.00.

 

Books will be published in the future on ALL the various Graves. Greaves, Grave, etc., families.  After the publication of the John Graves of Concord, MA book, the planned order of publication is:

**Graves Families of Randolph Co., NC (in 2002)

**John Graves of Frederick Co., VA

**Capt. Thomas Graves of VA

**Others, including Johann Sebastian Graff (John Graves) and other German Graves families, Graves families of England and elsewhere, Thomas Graves of New Castle Co., DE, etc.

 

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GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION WEB SITE

(http://www.gravesfa.org)

 

The website was just updated yesterday, with some new and revised genealogies being added.  There have also been recent additions to the DNA Analysis Project pages.

 

Please note that when some of the larger genealogies are revised, the updated version does not necessarily contain all material that I have received.  Examples of genealogies on the site that are still lacking much of the information I have are the ones for Capt. Thomas Graves of VA, and for John Graves (Johann Sebastian Graff) of PA, NC & TN.

 

Take a look at the site, and let us have your comments and suggestions.

 

TIPS ON USING THE SITE:

** If you are trying to search or download a large file (such as the Alphabetical Ancestor Listing or the Capt. Thomas Graves of VA genealogy), be sure you wait long enough.  These are very large files and it may take a long time for the entire file to load to your computer.  If you search for something toward the end of a large file and haven't waited long enough for it to load, you may not find it, even though it is there.

** When you access the website or a page of the site and it doesn't seem to be the most recent version, it may be because your browser displays what is called a cached copy of the page.  When you visit a web site, your browser will usually save a copy of what you look at on your computer.  Next time you visit that site, your computer may display the cached version of the page.  To be sure you see the most recent version of any page, click the "Refresh" button at the top of your browser screen.

 

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DNA ANALYSIS PROJECT

 

The Graves/Greaves DNA Analysis Project has been started.  We hope that this will help us find which families are connected and which are not, where documentation cannot be found.  A description of the project was sent to everyone in our database via e-mail and "snail mail" in July and August.  Further information can be found on the GFA website by clicking on the DNA Project link at the top of the main page.  A total of 85 people in the U.S., Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand, representing 51 different Graves and Greaves families, agreed to participate.  They were sent a test kit and instructions Sept. 8-11.  As soon as most of the DNA samples have been returned to me, they will be sent to the testing laboratory (Family Tree DNA) for analysis.  I expect to have at least some of the results by early to mid-November.  Participants will be provided with their own results, and the summarized results will be posted on the GFA website.

 

In case any of you who are participating in the testing are unsure about the cost of the initial phase of the project, it is $189.  Checks should be made payable to me, Kenneth V. Graves.

 

The project is not over -- far from it.  This is only the beginning.  Our cost for all future testing will be $199 per person.  As before, since we are testing the Y-chromosome which is only passed from male to male, testing can only be done of male descendants with the Graves/Greaves/etc. surname.  To reduce the cost impact, one family member or a group of family members can pay for one person to be their representative.  If you are a female and want to learn more about your Graves ancestry, maybe you can find a direct male descendant and sponsor him for the study.

 

There is a list of families participating in the DNA study on the GFA website.  There is also a list of some of the families that we would like to see added to the list.  Families needed include:

**Graves Family of Yorkshire and Mickleton Manor, Gloucestershire, England (68)

**Greaves Family of Beeley, Derbyshire, England (228)

**George Graves of Plaistow, England (64)

**Other families of the British Isles, especially including families of Grieve, Grieves, Greve, and other spellings

**Graves families of Netherlands, France and elsewhere

**John Graves (Johann Sebastian Graff) of PA, NC & TN (105)

**Joseph Graves and Rachel Pratt of Framingham, MA (133)

**Richard Graves and Polly Lucy of SC & AR (189)

 

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MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

 

Every now and then I like to let you know what is happening and why.  Earlier in this bulletin I mentioned the June issue of the newsletter just about to be mailed.  I hope to get the August and October issues completed as soon as possible.  However, the John Graves book has taken priority over the newsletter.

 

Then, of course, I have been maintaining the GFA website and trying to answer some of the volume of correspondence while conducting the new DNA analysis project.  I apologize if some of these tasks haven't been done as quickly as we would prefer.  Some of your orders for books and GFA memberships have accumulated also, and I plan to process those within the next week.

 

I appreciate your help and understanding, and am excited about the progress we are making toward a better understanding of the worldwide Graves/Greaves families.

 

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E-MAIL ADDRESS AND POSTAL MAILING ADDRESS FOR KEN GRAVES

 

I used to have a couple of other e-mail addresses, including one on AOL.  I now have only one address, ken.graves@gravesfa.org.  Also, we moved to another house in the same town more than 2 years ago.  However, I occasionally find that people have tried to contact me at my old address.  Please be sure to use the correct addresses.  If you forget, you can always look on the GFA website.  Thanks.

 

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ABOUT THIS BULLETIN:

This bulletin is written and edited by Kenneth V. Graves, ken.graves@gravesfa.org.  Ken Graves is also editor of the Graves Family Newsletter, the official publication of the Graves Family Association.  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 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 (for U.S. & Canada) or $30 per year (for all other countries) to Graves Family Association, 20 Binney Circle, Wrentham, MA 02093 (more details on GFA website).  Note that membership is for a calendar year so if you join late in the year be sure to specify which year dues are for.  Benefits include 6 issues of the newsletter, 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.