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.
9, No. 6, June 9, 2007
===============================================
Copyright
© 2007 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
**
June 2007 Reunion in Williamsburg, VA
**
Two More Major Reunions in 2007 after Williamsburg
**
Expansion of Our DNA Study?
**
New DNA Study Discoveries
**
Follow-up to Discussion of Descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA
**
New Information About Connections Between Families of SC, AL & TN
**
An Interesting Source for New and Used Books
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
===============================================
GENERAL
COMMENTS
The
main reason for this issue of the Bulletin so soon after the previous one is to
let you know about the Sorenson DNA study we will be participating in, and to
give you time to prepare your ancestor charts if you want to be tested at the
reunion in Williamsburg. There are also
a number of other happenings and discoveries that I haven’t been able to share
with you previously.
===============================================
JUNE
2007 REUNION IN WILLIAMSBURG, VA
It
is still not too late to sign up for the June 14-17 reunion in Williamsburg,
VA, although you might have to pay online via PayPal. The schedule and registration form is on the GFA website. The attendance is expected to be about 210
(somewhere between 190 and 230). If you
want to attend, it would be best for you to contact me first via email or phone
(see GFA website), and then send your registration and payment immediately. (I
will be leaving for Virginia about noon on Tuesday, June 12.) If you have questions, contact me. There may even be a room or two available at
the Patrick Henry Inn because of a couple of recent cancellations.
For
those who can’t get a room where they would prefer, or want to save some money,
there are campgrounds in the area, and veterans can stay at military bases.
I
have been asked by some of you whether Graves family books will be available at
the reunion. I will have a few of each
volume, although the book on Capt. Thomas Graves of VA that many of those
attending will be most interested in will not be available because it hasn’t
yet been published.
===============================================
TWO
MORE MAJOR REUNIONS IN 2007 AFTER WILLIAMSBURG
For
those of you who can’t be at our reunion in Williamsburg this month, there are
two more opportunities to get together.
There will be a reunion in Frankfort, KY on June 23-24, and another one
in Waco, TX on July 27-28. I will be at
both of them, and I hope that many of you who aren’t able to join us in
Virginia will be able to attend one of these.
To see more about these and to find out who to contact for more
information, go to the reunions page of the website.
===============================================
EXPANSION
OF OUR DNA STUDY
In
the Feb. 13, 2007 issue of this Bulletin, I mentioned that we will be working
with a non-profit organization called Sorenson Molecular Genealogy
Foundation. This is not a replacement
for our existing study but rather a valuable supplement. Although they will be doing Y-DNA and
mitochondrial DNA testing (as in our present study), their most interesting
program is for autosomal testing. 22 of
the 23 pairs of human chromosomes are autosomal. Although all the genetic material in these chromosomes is from
our ancestors, it is very difficult to determine which part is from which
ancestor. The genetic material in each
chromosome from the father is mixed in an unpredictable way with the genetic
material from each matching chromosome from the mother. However, by testing enough descendants of a
family and using powerful computer processing on the test results, it is
believed that ancestors can be determined many generations back. One of the exciting aspects of this is
everyone in a family can be tested, and there is the potential for the results
to show all ancestors, not just one direct line. You can see more about this study at www.smgf.org.
(If you go to that site, don’t request a test kit until we have
finalized our procedure to maximize the benefits of participating in this
study.)
Another big positive aspect of the Sorenson
study is that it is free to participants.
There are also major drawbacks.
Since this study is not being done primarily for those who provide the
samples but rather as a scientific investigation, it may be months or even
years before all the samples are analyzed and all the results are posted; there
will be no reporting of results to participants and none of the website pages
that Family Tree DNA provides; and it will not be easy to retrieve and compare
the results. Regarding retrieval of the
results, it is very important that all participants provide Ken Graves with a copy
of the pedigree chart that is submitted; otherwise it will be very difficult to
identify results.
Considering
the objectives of Sorenson’s study, however, it is well worth our effort to
take part in it. Here is what you and
other members of your family need to do and can expect:
(1)
We will start with those of you who will be attending the reunion in
Williamsburg next weekend and those of you who will be attending the reunion in
Frankfort, KY June 23-24. I will
tell the rest of you what we will need to do to participate in the next GF
Bulletin in early July.
(2)
Everyone in your family can participate, both males and females. The only requirement is that participants
must be 7 years of age or older.
(3)
Prepare and bring with you to the reunion an ancestry chart showing all your
ancestral lines for at least 4 generations. If you can go back farther, you should. Many of you will be able to go back to the immigrant ancestor, at
least on the Graves line. This ancestry
chart can be on paper or as a GEDCOM file on diskette. The minimum information that should be
included for everyone on the chart is name, and date and place of birth.
(4)
At the reunion you will be asked to sign a consent form and provide a DNA
sample by swishing a simple mouthwash rinse.
(5)
I will be available at each reunion to help and to answer any questions.
===============================================
NEW
DNA STUDY DISCOVERIES
We
have found that gen. 336 (Peter Greaves and Elizabeth Hargrove of Greenhill,
Norton, South Yorkshire) and gen. 197 (William Greaves, Susanna Parkin, and Ann
Haigue of Ecclesfield, Yorkshire) share a common ancestor. As a side comment, the first two generations
of gen. 336 probably belong with a different genealogy, and they will probably
be removed as soon as I can find time.
Also, if anyone can tell me where those first two generations belong, I
would appreciate it.
We
have just discovered that gen. 377 (John Grave and Elizabeth Fisher of Cumbria,
England) is closely related to gen. 683 (Thomas Graves and Ann ------ of
Cambridgeshire, England) and other families of the Cambridgeshire/Lancashire
group shown on the GFA website. That
probably means that all the Grave families of Cumbria that are presumed to be related
to gen. 377 are also closely related to the Cambridgeshire/Lancashire
group. Now we need descendants of these
other Cumbria Grave families to participate in the DNA study to confirm their
connections.
Not
only was it found that genealogy 467 and genealogy 841 were part of the family
of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA (genealogy 169) but the exact connections were
found, and both genealogies have now been added to gen. 169. It is interesting to see that the family of
467 lived in Williamsburg, VA, where our reunion this month will be.
===============================================
FOLLOWUP
TO DISCUSSION OF DESCENDANTS OF CAPT. THOMAS GRAVES OF VA
William
Thompson Graves of Charlotte, NC, a Capt. Thomas Graves descendant, reminded me
of an article that he submitted in 1981.
The following information was previously published on pages 114,
118-119, 1981 Graves Family Newsletter. The reason it is being published here is
because it now seems as if it may be true.
In the line from Capt. Thomas1 Graves, John2,
Thomas3, John4, the connection between the third and
fourth generations may be incorrect. If
John4 was an immigrant to Virginia, as suggested by the following
record in a family Bible, that would explain this situation. The complete article is an appendix in the
Capt. Thomas Graves genealogy, and you can go directly to it at http://www.gravesfa.org/gen169app6.htm. [My recent comments are in square brackets
below.]
It
seems that sometimes family legends, no matter how implausible, sometimes turn
out to be surprisingly true. An example
of this is the legend that John Graves of Randolph Co., NC, who married Margery
Harvey (genealogy 77) was descended from John Graves of Concord, MA (genealogy
166). I originally dismissed this as
extremely unlikely. However, when we
began the DNA study, we found that both family groups had the same DNA, so it
suddenly seemed very likely.
Mr. William T. Graves came across a record
from the Bible of Solomon Graves, son of Rev. Barzillai Graves (who died 14
July 1827 in Caswell Co., NC). The
Bible belonged to Mrs. Elizabeth Burke (nee Graves) of Yanceyville, NC, and was
copied by the N.C. Archives in 1971.
Although it is not certain, the record (at least in part) appears to be
Solomon Graves’ attempt to recall his ancestry as of 1817. Someone has added notes concerning family
births and deaths occurring after 1817.
Mr. William T. Graves prepared the following transcription of the Bible
record (with a few minor punctuation changes).
There are probably errors regarding Solomon’s birth. For example, the record states that Joseph
and Thomas Graves came to Virginia from England around 1700; that is unlikely
[at least, it seemed very unlikely in 1981].
Ancestry,
family, particulars -- according to the best information
that
can be at present collected --- Anno D. 1817
It
seems that about the year 1700, Joseph and Thomas Graves emigrated to America
from England. [This is the Thomas
Graves, b. 1691, who married Ann Davenport.]
Being brothers, they both settled in the State of Virginia in the County
of Spotsylvania. Each of them married
in that State and from them a numerous connection has descended. Thomas intermarried with one Mary Perkins
and had by this marriage only three children, two daughters and a son, and his
wife died. He then married a second
time and by this marriage he had many sons.
===============================================
NEW
INFORMATION ABOUT CONNECTIONS BETWEEN FAMILIES OF SC, AL & TN
Joseph
A. Williams, Jr. recently sent me a genealogy for Joseph Greaves and Mary
Bennett (genealogy 156) that was very interesting. It shows 2 wives and 2 sets of children for John Graves, born
1746, son of Joseph. Looking at the
dates, the marriage to Susan would have had to have been his first, and the
marriage to Charity his second. The interesting aspect of this is that John
Graves who married Susan is genealogy 92 on the GFA website (at http://www.gravesfa.org/gen092.htm).
It is apparent from looking at both genealogies, that the date of birth for
both John Graveses are the same and the birthdates of the children fit nicely,
so they certainly could be the same person. However, if both families are the
same John Graves, then they are not related to the Graves families of Pike Co.,
AL. And perhaps that is why John did
not move to AL but to TN instead -- because he didn't have Graves relatives in
Pike Co. We have DNA test results for
the Joseph Graves family (gen. 156) and for one of the Pike Co. Graves families
(gen. 155). You can see these and other families that have been believed to be
related on the charts page accessible from the main page of the GFA website. It
has been believed that genealogy 92 was also part of this group of families in Pike
Co., partly based on the Perkins family being related to both families. It
appears that may be wrong, but it would be very helpful to find a male Graves
descendant of gen. 92 to confirm that gen. 92 is part of gen. 156. Help will be appreciated in finding a male
descendant of genealogy 92 with the Graves surname who is willing to
participate in the DNA study.
===============================================
AN
INTERESTING SOURCE FOR NEW AND USED BOOKS
The
minutes of the March 27, 2007 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the GFA
(available for viewing on the GFA website) mention an interesting website, http://www.abebooks.com. The following description is from their
site.
“At
AbeBooks.com our mission is to help people find and buy any book from any
bookseller anywhere.
AbeBooks,
the world’s largest online marketplace for books, lists over 100 million new,
used, rare, and out-of-print books from more than 13,500 booksellers. This
great selection delivers value for all: readers find bestsellers, collectors
find rare books, students find textbooks, and treasure hunters find books
they’ve been seeking forever.”
Their
search capability allows searching by various means. When I searched by author, I got the following results for some
of our surname variations. Keep in mind
that many of these are for multiple copies of the same book.
Graves
-- 34, 640
Greaves
– 4,974 (includes Greave & Graeve)
Grieve
– 2,089 (not clear whether this includes Grieves)
Grieves
– 2,036
Greve
– 1,548
I
even found several copies of books of mine that are still available from me.
===============================================
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
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