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.
8, No. 4, March 31, 2006
===============================================
Copyright
© 2006 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
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Visit
the GFA web site at http://www.gravesfa.org
===============================================
CONTENTS:
**
General Comments
**
There are Still a Couple of Openings for the Trip to England this May
**
Update on 2007 Reunion in Williamsburg, VA
**
Recent Successful Graves Gathering in Doraville, GA
**
DNA Study Happenings
**
Genealogies on the GFA Website With Defective Links
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
===============================================
GENERAL
COMMENTS
I
had hoped to send this issue of the Bulletin earlier in March, but there are
just too many things to do and too few hours in which to do them.
Since
St. Patrick’s Day was just March 17, and March may be, at least unofficially,
“Irish Awareness Month”, I thought I would look into the common American belief
that corned beef and cabbage is the appropriate dish for celebrating Irish
ancestry. An interesting website at http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/2Kitch/aCBeefCabge.html
tells us that pork has always been the favorite, and corned beef is a
myth. A poem quoted on that site says
in part:
I just want to put something straight
About what should be on your plate,
If it's corned beef you're makin'
You're sadly mistaken,
That isn't what Irishmen ate.
“We hope that you're not too disappointed to
learn that Corned Beef & Cabbage is about as truly Irish as Spaghetti &
Meatballs.”
===============================================
THERE
ARE STILL A COUPLE OF OPENINGS FOR THE TRIP TO ENGLAND THIS MAY
I will be going to England
from May 10 until May 18. Because some
people have asked whether they can go with me, I have made arrangements for 4
people to go along. There is still
space for one or two more. This will be
a very special tour in a couple of ways.
First of all, we will be meeting many people in England who are
Graves-Greaves-Grieve- etc. descendants.
Maybe even more importantly, this is a private tour at a bargain price
for that luxury. We will be escorted
around England by Archie Affleck-Graves, a registered Blue Badge guide for 19
years. You can see more about him and
the treat that is in store for us on his website at www.archiesguidedtours.com/. This will not be a big group, canned tour,
but a very personal experience.
The purpose of the trip is
primarily to meet as many descendants of Graves, Greaves, and Grieve families
as possible, and get family information and DNA samples from them. But, of course we will also be seeing lots
of scenery, history, and the places our ancestors lived, along with benefiting from
Archie’s insight and experience.
We will be arriving in
Manchester the morning of May 10. There
may be as many as 8 meetings with Graves/Greaves descendants in Chester (May
10), Keswick (May 11), Sunderland (May 12), York (May 13), Boston (May 14), Coventry
(May 15), Cottenham (May 16), and London (May 17). We will be staying mainly in
bed and breakfast lodging. I will be
flying home from Heathrow on May 18, but others are free to add extra time to
the beginning or end of the tour.
If you want to go, you need
to let me know as soon as possible. I
will then let you know the details of cost, schedule, etc.
===============================================
UPDATE ON 2007 REUNION IN
WILLIAMSBURG, VA
Our reunion at the Patrick
Henry Inn in Williamsburg, VA, will be the weekend of June 15-17, 2007. On Jan.
25, 11 of the 75 reserved rooms had been booked. By Feb. 14, 25 rooms had been booked. As of March 17, a total of 49 rooms were booked (for 96 adults
and 8 children). The total is higher
now. Don’t delay any longer. Now is the time to make your reservation if
you want to be sure of staying at the Patrick Henry.
A trip to Williamsburg, VA is
a great vacation experience, not only for the history on display, but also for
the scenery and charm of the area.
Attractions such as Busch Gardens and Yorktown battlefield are two of
the many things for the entire family.
There are still some
important decisions and lots of help that is needed to make this reunion a
great success. To participate in the
discussion and planning, join the gravesreunion2007 Yahoo group if you have not
done so already. To join this, go to
the GFA website, click on the “Graves Email Lists and Groups” link at the top
of the page, and then click on the link toward the top of the second page.
The tentative schedule for
the reunion weekend is:
Thursday, 6/15 – Registration
and Reception
Friday, 6/16 – Tour of
Jamestown in the morning, and presentations and discussions part of the
afternoon and evening
Saturday, 6/17 – Tour of
Colonial Williamsburg in the morning, and presentations and discussions part of
the afternoon and evening
Sunday, 6/18 – Tour of the
Eastern Shore of Virginia to see Hungar’s Church and Cemetery, and the area
where Capt. Thomas Graves lived.
All tours will be escorted
and narrated. We will discuss this
schedule on the Yahoo list to be sure it fits best with most people’s needs, so
don’t change your room reservations to comply with this yet. Let me know if you want to help with any
part of this, and if you have any suggestions.
===============================================
RECENT
SUCCESSFUL GRAVES GATHERING IN DORAVILLE, GA
The Graves gathering in Doraville, GA (just
north of Atlanta) on Sunday afternoon, March 12, was a great success. Total attendance was between 34 and 40. Vicki Watkins, the organizer of the event,
did a terrific job. We socialized and
had a buffet lunch first. Then I gave a
presentation that included discussion of our DNA study. Two descendants signed up for the DNA test
at the meeting.
The greatest number of attendees were descended
from Alexander Graves of NC & GA (gen. 74), but there were also descendants
of Capt. Thomas Graves (gen. 169), John Graves of Concord, MA (gen. 166),
Beverly Graves of Caroline Co., VA (gen. 217), James Graves and Sarah ----- of
SC & GA (gen. 78), Benjamin Graves and Sally Tilden of VT (gen. 271),
William Graves and Betsey Thair of VT (gen. 135), William B. Graves and
Elizabeth ----- of NC & IN (gen. 69), and Robert Greeves of Great Dalby,
Leicestershire, England (gen. 338).
A reporter and a photographer from the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution were there, and an article was in the newspaper on
Thursday, March 16. You can see a copy
of the article by going to the GFA website, clicking on the link for “Family Reunions”,
and then clicking on the link for the Doraville gathering.
===============================================
DNA STUDY HAPPENINGS
All new DNA test results have been added to the master results summary
table at http://www.gravesfa.org/DNA_test_results.html. I
have not yet had time to update all of the various family charts with these
results.
Family Tree DNA, the company in Houston, TX that does our DNA testing,
has announced a number of new features and developments recently. The two most important things are:
(1) There is now a 59-marker Y-DNA test available. This will help us sort out the different
ancestral lines that have a common ancestor but whose DNA test results are so
similar that we have had difficulty distinguishing one from the other.
(2) Some of the prices have been reduced. The 37-marker test is now $189, the 59-marker test is $269, and
upgrading from 37 to 59 is $99. For a
complete list of the new prices, see the FTDNA website.
If your part of the family (any spelling, including Graves, Greaves,
Grieve, etc.) has not yet been tested, now is the time to find a male
descendants with the Graves/Greaves/Grieve surname and get them to take
part. See the GFA website for
instructions.
===============================================
GENEALOGIES
ON THE GFA WEBSITE WITH DEFECTIVE LINKS
Two
problems that exist with some of the genealogies on the GFA website are:
(1)
Hyperlinks that you should be able to click on to see an appendix or go to
another web page don’t work.
(2)
Pictures that are supposed to be in the genealogy don’t display.
Both
of these problems are caused by Microsoft Front Page or Microsoft’s software to
convert from a Word document to an html document. The software automatically renames the link that I provide to
something else that no longer works.
This seems rather stupid, but it apparently makes sense to someone at
Microsoft. I plan to eventually solve
this problem by using different software.
In the meantime, if you see either of these problems and would like for
me to fix it, please let me know.
===============================================
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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