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.
10, No. 1, Jan. 2, 2008
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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
subscribed.
Visit
the GFA web site at https://gravesfa.org
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CONTENTS:
**
General Comments
**
Graves Family Meetings In the Near Future
**
Greaves Family of Stepney, London, England, and Descendants of Rear Adm. Thomas
Graves of Charlestown, MA
**
How to Help Expand the Genealogies on the GFA Website
**
Capt. Thomas Graves of Virginia
**
Grave/Graves families of Cambridgeshire, Cumbria/Cumberland, and Lancashire,
England
**
Changes to the GFA Website
**
Looking at Copies of the Graves Family Bulletin on the GFA Website
**
Another U.S. President With Graves Ancestry
**
Graves Descendant Mic Barnette to Speak in Dallas, Texas
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
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GENERAL
COMMENTS
The
year 2007 was one of continued progress for the Graves Family Association. Despite my frustration at not being able to
do some things (such as creating some new website features) and moving too
slowly on others, we have made great strides in connecting various parts of the
Graves and Greaves families through research and DNA testing. Some of our discoveries and conclusions are
discussed in this issue of the bulletin.
I
am also looking forward to meeting some of you at our meetings in the next
couple of months in the southeastern U.S., and others of you in Texas this
summer. Then in 2009, I hope as many of
you as possible sign up for our tour of England. Those of you who live in England will have an opportunity to meet
with us and discover some distant American cousins.
My
best wishes to all of you for a happy and successful New Year!
===============================================
GRAVES
FAMILY MEETINGS IN THE NEAR FUTURE
I
asked in the last newsletter for help in scheduling meetings on our way to
Florida in late January. The only
meeting that is definite at this time is that for the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of
the GFA on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008, noon to 3:00 p.m., at the Army Navy Club in
Arlington, VA.
For
the next day, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008, we have been trying to schedule a meeting
in Yanceyville, Caswell Co., NC. If
that can’t be arranged within the next couple of days, I will try to arrange a
meeting in Roanoke, VA, or in the Greensboro or Winston-Salem areas of NC for
Sunday afternoon. I am also considering
evening meetings in other locations such as Charlotte, NC, and Macon, GA. If anyone is interested in helping organize
a meeting in the southeastern U.S. for the last week of January, please contact
me as soon as possible.
Then,
in March 2008, there will be a Graves gathering in Auburn, AL, on March 8. More details will be announced on the
website and in this bulletin.
Sometime
this summer, Sarah and I will be in Texas again, and I am hoping there will be
a meeting of the Southwest Chapter of the GFA that we may be able to attend.
===============================================
GREAVES
FAMILY OF STEPNEY, LONDON, ENGLAND, AND DESCENDANTS OF REAR ADM. THOMAS GRAVES
OF CHARLESTOWN, MA
This
family is part of the largest group of Graves/Greaves families descended from a
common ancestor. If you look at the
master table of DNA test results, you can see that the last large blue group in
the table is by far the largest.
Likewise, on the charts page of the website, the long list of related
families can be seen, and the summary charts show the possible connections.
In
America, some of the families that have been proven to descend from a common
ancestor include those of Rear Admiral Thomas Graves of Charlestown, MA (gen.
28) (who as a ship captain brought over Gov. Winthrop and many other early
settlers of New England), John Graves of Concord, MA (gen. 166), John Greaves
of St. Mary’s Co., MD (gen. 247), Lt. William Graves of Nova Scotia, Canada
(gen. 238), Francis Graves of VA (gen. 220), the Graves families of Randolph
Co., NC, etc.
I
have now combined the genealogy for Rear Adm. Thomas Graves (gen. 28), that of
the Greaves family of Stepney (gen. 28A), and that of John Graves of Stepney
(gen. 28B). They are all now genealogy
28, and the chart of this family has been updated to reflect the change. Ancestors and descendants of this genealogy
need to be searched for in England in wills, church records, etc. This is one way to find how other parts of
the family (such as John Graves of Concord, MA, and the Greaves family of
Beeley, Derbyshire) connect.
In
spite of the importance of this part of the family, less is known about it than
about many other families. A relatively
small number of descendants of Rear Admiral Thomas Graves is known. One reason may be that many of them may have
been loyal to the King during the American Revolution, moving to Canada or even
back to England. The records in Canada
are more difficult to search (for instance, most of the census records are not
readily available on the internet), and fewer family trees have been posted for
families in England on internet sites such as Ancestry.com. Only 3 DNA tests have been conducted for
genealogy 28, and 2 of those are for descendants of Lebbeus Graves (b.c. 1768).
One
of the samples (74347) from a Lebbeus Graves descendant exactly matches the
first 37 markers of a sample from genealogy 697 (Charles Graves and Elizabeth
Ephland of MO, AR & TX). These are
the only samples in a very large group that have a mutation of 12 at marker
26. Both gen. 697 samples need to be
upgraded to 67 markers to see whether they still match. (79709 is 37 markers, and 1351 is only 25
markers.) Also, descendants of Lebbeus
Graves should do research to try to find whether and where gen. 697 connects,
perhaps working with the gen. 697 family members.
Finally,
more DNA tests are needed for descendants of this family in England. This includes descendants of the family of
Stepney (gen. 28), the Greaves family of Beeley, Derbyshire (gen. 228), and the
Greaves family of Macclesfield, Cheshire (gen. 334). The samples we have for gen. 334 (1441, 12 markers) and for gen.
228 (45963, 37 markers) should be upgraded to 67 markers so that we can better
use them for comparison purposes against present and future samples.
===============================================
HOW
TO HELP EXPAND THE GENEALOGIES ON THE GFA WEBSITE
Elvin
Ogg of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan has been working on finding all descendants
of his ancestors, Asa Graves (b. 1755) and Roxanne Ottman, descended from Rear
Adm. Thomas Graves (genealogy 28).
Recently, he sent all his updates and corrections for inclusion in the
genealogy. He also sent a genealogy of
all descendants of Elisha Graves (born about 1820 in NY) and Julia A. Mayhew,
who moved to Genesee Co., Michigan. He
thinks this family may also be descended from Rear Adm. Thomas Graves, If anyone can help, please let Elvin or me
know.
We
would like to have more of you actively researching your family, compiling the
information, and sharing it with the rest of us. Dr. Thomas (“Tom”) L. Graves of Gulfport, Mississippi, has done a
similar job for part of genealogy 169 (Capt. Thomas Graves of VA), and many
others have done similar research over the years for various parts of their
families. Whether the scope of your
research is large or small, everything helps.
If any of you would like to do more but have questions about how to do
that, or if you have any ideas about how to increase interest in gathering
information about your family, please let me know.
===============================================
CAPT.
THOMAS GRAVES OF VIRGINIA
The
test result for DNA sample #3699 was previously in the genealogy and charts as
descended from Thomas2. It
has now been moved to where it belongs as a descendant of Thomas5,
Rice6, on all charts. Also,
other updates have been made to the charts.
There
has been much discussion over the past year or so about who Capt. Thomas Graves
really was and who his children and descendants were. We still don’t know the complete answer to that. However, based on evidence from the DNA
study, I have already removed the line of Francis Graves from genealogy 169 and
made it into a separate genealogy 220.
I will be doing a similar thing for the descendants of John2,
Thomas3, John4 soon, since it has been apparent for some
time that they are almost certainly not descended from Capt. Thomas
Graves. I wanted to wait to make all
changes until we had proof that could not be reasonably argued with. However, it will undoubtedly be a long time
before we have that level of proof.
Your research and other help is still very much needed.
===============================================
GRAVE/GRAVES
FAMILIES OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE, , CUMBRIA/CUMBERLAND, AND LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND
Our
DNA study (as seen on the charts page of the website) has shown the
relationship between the families of Cambridgeshire, Lancashire, and Cumbria.
In
searching in the International Genealogical Index (IGI, on the LDS
FamilySearch.org website) for a Leonard Graves of Cumberland, born in the late
1700’s, it was interesting to see that all the entries in the 1500’s were in
Cambridgeshire, and all those for the 1700’s and 1800’s were in
Cumberland. This would seem to suggest
a possible migration from Cambridgeshire to Lancashire and Cumberland. The same thing was found for Robert Graves, where
the IGI gave the name in the 1500’s and 1600’s in Cambridgeshire, and in the
1700’s and 1800’s in Cumberland.
However,
this could also be partly explained by a change in spelling from Grave to
Graves in Cambridgeshire, and incomplete records in the IGI. The Grave name certainly was in Cumbria in
the 1500’s (as shown on chart377.pdf and DNAchart116-summary.pdf).
So
far we only have one family of Lancashire (genealogy 374), one family of
Cumbria (gen. 377, John Grave and Elizabeth Fisher), and one family of
Cambridgeshire (gen. 683, Thomas Graves and Ann ------) with descendants who
have taken part in the DNA study. We
need others to participate. The sample
for gen. 374 only has 12 markers and we need to increase that to 37 markers,
since 12 markers really aren’t enough to be sure of where it belongs.
===============================================
CHANGES
TO THE GFA WEBSITE
Some
of the pages that are constantly being updated are:
·
New
news stories continue to be added to the Current News page of the website,
accessible from the History/News tab. The latest one is about a Graves family
in Cumbria, England.
·
The
genealogies (accessible from the Charts page and the Alphabetical Ancestor
Listing page) and the charts.
·
The
master DNA test results page at www.gravesfa.org/DNA_test_results.html.
===============================================
LOOKING
AT COPIES OF THE GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN ON THE GFA WEBSITE
Anyone
who misses a copy of this bulletin or who wants to look at previous issues of
the bulletin can always read any issue by going to the GFA website. Once there, click on the Products tab at the
top of the page. Then click on the link
for Bulletin, and scroll down the page to the particular issue you want to look
at.
===============================================
ANOTHER U.S. PRESIDENT WITH GRAVES ANCESTRY
The page on the GFA website for notable Graves/Greaves descendants lists former U.S. president Grover Cleveland, descended from genealogy 168. Now, to that we can add (John) Calvin Coolidge, descended from genealogy 28. The line of descent is:
Thomas Graves m. Katharine Gray
.Samuel Adams m. Rebecca Graves
.Susanna Adams m. Daniel Waldo
.Bethia Waldo m. Edmund Littlefield
.Esther Littlefield m. Samuel Soper
.Esther Soper m. Silas Briggs
.Asa Briggs m. Elizabeth Paul
.Sally Briggs m. Israel Putnam Brown
.Sally Brown m. Israel C Brewer
.Sarah Almeda Brewer m. Calvin Galusha Coolidge
.John Calvin Coolidge m. Victoria Josephine Moor
.John CALVIN COOLIDGE (1872-1933), US President
===============================================
GRAVES DESCENDANT MIC BARNETTE TO SPEAK IN DALLAS,
TEXAS
The Dallas Genealogical Society will host an
all day (Genealogical) Technology Day Conference on Saturday January 26, 2008
at the Dallas Public Library 1515 Young Street Dallas Texas 75201 (according to
a notice from ISOGG, the International Society of Genetic Genealogy).
One
of the speakers on Technology Day will be ISOGG member Mic Barnette. Mic is descended from Francis Graves of VA
(genealogy 220) through Jane Graves who married John Coffey. Mic will speak on DNA Testing for
Genealogists. He will also be the luncheon speaker reflecting on the Long
Genealogical Journey to Here, a lighthearted talk about how genealogical
research has changed since the 1960's to present.
Technology
Day is an annual venue of the Dallas Genealogical Society. It features lectures
and demonstrations throughout the day on all types of genealogically oriented
hardware and software and their use. For more information, visit the DGS
website at www.dallasgenealogy.com
and click on events.
After
the long day of the conference DGS is sponsoring a Library Lock-in. The Lock-in
begins at 6 PM and goes to about 2 AM. During the evening only genealogists are
in the library where they may visit with other genealogists and utilize the
library's extraordinary genealogical collection.
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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
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