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. 7, July 14, 2005

 

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Copyright © 2005 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:

 

** Last Call for Reunion in San Antonio

** Other Graves/Greaves Reunions

** Graves Family Association Website

** Graves/Greaves DNA Study

** Remember to Use Refresh on Your Browser

** To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things

 

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LAST CALL FOR REUNION IN SAN ANTONIO

 

July 29 & 30, 2005, San Antonio, TX.  Descendants of all Graves families are invited.  Ron Graves, the organizer, wants to remind everyone that tomorrow, July 15, is the last day to take advantage of the special room rates at the San Antonio Doubletree Hotel.  To reserve a room, call 800-535-1980 and mention the Graves Family Reunion.  I will be there, talking about the DNA study, the various Graves and Greaves families, etc.  In addition, Sydney Holmsley, President of the San Antonio Chapter of the Jamestowne Society, and some of the various Graves cousins will be speaking.  To register for the reunion and for more information, contact, Ron Graves, at gravesronn@cs.com.

 

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OTHER GRAVES/GREAVES REUNIONS

 

Saturday, August 20, 2005, 2-6 p.m., Wrentham, Massachusetts, at the house of Ken and Sarah Graves.  (This is rescheduled from June 25.)  It will be a cookout with us providing hamburgers, hotdogs, and various beverages, and will be held rain or shine.  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.  Please RSVP to let us know you are coming and what you will bring to ken.graves@gravesfa.org or call 508-384-8084.

 

I know there are other family reunions.  If you would like to have yours announced, send me information about it.

 

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GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION WEBSITE

 

Lots of family descendant charts have been added to the GFA website this month.  You can see a list of these in the “Updates” section of the home page.  The charts can be accessed by going to the master DNA test results table at http://www.gravesfa.org/DNA_test_results.html, finding the genealogy of interest on the right side of that table, and clicking on the link.  Obviously there is no link for families that have not participated in the DNA study, so this is another reason to find someone in your part of the family to take part.  The only requirement is that the participant must be male and be descended in an all-male line from a male Graves or Greaves ancestor (i.e., he usually must have the Graves or Greaves surname).

 

I have begun trying to show how the various families may be connected.  In most cases, additional traditional research is needed to substantiate these possible connections.  Also, expanding all DNA tests to 37 markers will help.  Family groupings that have been charted so far include: William Graves and John S. Graves of VA, NC & KY (13 and 148), Some Graves Families of SC, GA, AL & AR (48, 78, 189, 258, 920), Some Graves Families of Caroline Co. & Halifax Co., VA & SC (145, 217, 851), and Some Graves Families of Cambridgeshire, England (116, 231, 683).

 

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GRAVES/GREAVES DNA STUDY

 

The DNA study has been extremely helpful, and has given answers that could never have been discovered by traditional research.  If your part of the family does not yet have a participant, find someone (a male with the Graves, Greaves, Grave, etc. surname) and get him to take part.

 

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.

 

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REMEMBER TO USE REFRESH ON YOUR BROWSER

 

When you are looking at the Graves Family Association website (or any other website) and a page has been changed, you may not see the most recent version of the page unless you click “Refresh” in your web browser (Internet Explorer or whichever one you are using).  In order to display web pages faster, your computer will usually save each page on your computer and then display that version on your screen the next time you want to look at that page.  To be sure you are actually seeing the most recent version of a web page, you need to click Refresh.

 

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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.