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.
12, No. 3, June 4, 2010
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Copyright
© 2010 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
**
Accomplishments of the Graves Family Association
**
Goals of the GFA, Our Plans to Achieve Them, and Obstacles to Overcome
**
Most Popular Pages on the GFA Website
**
Famous Relatives from Ancestry.com
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
===============================================
GENERAL
COMMENTS
This
issue of the Bulletin includes some of the history and goals of the Graves
Family Association. Some of this
was discussed at the reunion in San Antonio, Texas in August 2009. I will appreciate all ideas and
suggestions for how to improve our Association and achieve our goals, and any
offers of help.
Also,
many of us are interested in connections with famous people, and there is some
discussion of that subject in this issue.
===============================================
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
OF THE GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION
Since it was started (especially recently),
our accomplishments include:
· More than 700 genealogies compiled and
available online, many of those from combining previously unconnected families
· Seven hardcover books published
· A data base of about 8,000 Graves/Greaves
descendants corresponded with
· Hardcopy newsletter published 6 times per
year for 27 years, and online version for 14 years
· State of the art website created and
maintained
· DNA study started in 2001, now expanded to
include not only Y-DNA, but also mitochondrial and autosomal DNA
· Regional GFA chapters established
· Discovered extensive problems with genealogy
169 for Capt. Thomas Graves of VA. Split off gen. 220, 270, and others, and
published information about early land records on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
· Added and updated many genealogies and
charts, and added new groups to the Charts page
· Expanded number of genealogies for most areas
of England, and began to gather records from England and elsewhere
· Added many people to the Notables page,
including Calvin Coolidge (U.S. President), Baron Tony Greaves (British M.P.),
etc.
Changes and additions to the website include:
· Addition of Current News page
· Change detection capability on Main page and
Current News page
· Added Contact page, with link on every
website page, and added special messaging option on Contact page
· Many additions and changes to the Master DNA
Test Results page
· Added African American and Native American
pages
· Added pages for Products and Services from
Graves/Greaves family members, and a page for family houses and places
· Addition of chart showing relationships
between Y-haplogroups and the tested families
· Addition of charts for autosomal DNA
===============================================
GOALS
OF THE GFA, OUR PLANS TO ACHIEVE THEM, AND OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME
OUR GOALS
•Attracting
members
•Meeting
their needs
–Learning
more about our ancestry and relatives
–Other
•Assuring
long-term growth and continuity of the GFA
What
we are doing to achieve them
•Website
changes (already discussed)
•Incorporation
as 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
What
else needs to be done
•Add
more website features
•Increase
membership
•Raise
money for DNA and traditional research
•Conduct
research in British Isles
Adding
website features
•Give
people ability to add to genealogies
•Allow
communication among people in genealogies or portions of genealogies/families
•Key
research data to genealogies
•Improve
communication by adding blog, forum, email list, etc.
PLANS
Plans
to increase membership
•New
membership capabilities on website
•Why
do some people join and others don’t?
•What
are the attractions of GFA membership?
•How
can we make membership more attractive?
•What
should we be doing to interest and attract more people?
Increase
publicity and promotion
Raising
money for DNA and Traditional Research
•Membership
–Get
more members
–Increase
dues
•Online
store
•Contributions
OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS
·
Ken Graves doing all the work.
We need to find ways for others to share the effort.
·
Lack of knowledge about how to do some tasks
·
Not enough interaction between family members
===============================================
MOST
POPULAR PAGES ON THE GFA WEBSITE
According
to the website analysis software (Stat Counter) that is used for the GFA
website, the most popular pages (by recent number of views) are listed in the
table below. The main page is in
first place because that is the obvious point of entry. Beyond that, it appears that people are
most interested in finding genealogies on the alphabetical and numerical
listings. The interest in famous
family members is not surprising either.
There
are many other pages that get fewer hits than these top 11. Part of the reason for that is probably
deficiencies in website design, causing some pages to be less obvious and
harder to find than others. I will
try to correct that problem.
Main
Page |
2,017 |
Alphabetical
ancestor listing |
1,659 |
Charts
(numerical ancestor listing) |
934 |
Famous
family members |
626 |
Research
programs |
477 |
Migration
of families |
452 |
Surname
origins and variations |
306 |
DNA
page |
280 |
Groups
of families by geographic area |
180 |
Surname
distribution |
170 |
Mitochondrial
DNA test results |
168 |
===============================================
FAMOUS
RELATIVES FROM ANCESTRY.COM
Ancestry.com
has a feature called Relationship Finder, which is part of their
OneWorldTree. It is unclear
whether it is still under development.
One part of this is a tool to find famous people related to or descended
from any ancestor. Users of this
feature should be very careful in its use, since the results are only as
accurate as the data submitted to OneWorldTree (and most of us know how bad
that can be).
A couple years ago Ancestry.com stopped supporting
the Ancestry World Trees that were components of OneWorldTree. They invited AWT owners to transfer
their data to the new format, the present AncestryMemberTrees (mainly the
Public Member Trees).
Many
of the connections that show in OneWorldTree may not show in Public Member
Trees (since some of those connections were from Ancestry World Tree). Once you have opened a particular tree
in Public Member Trees and the page for that ancestor is displayed, there is a
shaded rectangle immediately under the name of the ancestor with his or her
birth and death information. Click
on the link for “More options”, and then click on “Find famous relative.” A message like the one in the next
paragraph may appear.
“We haven't found any possible connections to
famous people for Thomas Graves because we don't know how this person
connects into OneWorldTree. To connect into OneWorldTree, enter in information
about your family—-at some point when we think we've found a match, we'll
let you know by showing a small green leaf () next to the person's name. After you've
accepted the hint for a person in OneWorldTree, we will be able to show you the
famous people we think are related to that person.”
If
you search for a person in OneWorldTree (accessed by going to http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/trees/owt/),
you will see a box in the upper right titled “Page Tools.” In that, click on “Find famous
relatives.” If there are any links
for that person, a list of Famous People supposedly related to the person you
searched for will be displayed.
For each famous person, there is a link for “Show relationships” which
will show the supposed relationship.
In addition to the many errors in the genealogies, there are flaws in
the system; for instance, entering Thomas Graves with wife Katherine Croshaw
(for genealogy 169) gave no hits, but entering Thomas Graves with wife
Katherine gave hits (because her last name was entered as Crosher). There are also a relatively small
number of genealogies in OWT, and the needed links to famous people haven’t all
been entered.
However,
after discarding obvious incorrect lines and connections, the following famous
people seem to be descended from Graves or Greaves ancestors. If their lineages can be verified, they
will be added to the page for notable family members on the GFA website. Please let us know if you can see any
problems with these lineages, and let us know of any others you find.
Descended
from Capt. Thomas Graves of VA (gen. 169)
·
George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President
of the U.S. Descent: (1) Thomas
Graves, (2) Verlinda Graves, b.c. 1618, (3) Mary Stone, b. 1650, (4) Mary
Doyne, b. 1683, m. Nicholas Dawson, (5) George Dawson, b. 1716, m. Eleanor
Lowe, (6) Henry Dawson, 1747, (7) Samuel Dawson, b. 1779, (8) Eliza Dawson, b.
1804, (9) Lucretia Green Foree, b. 1822, (10) Nancy Eliza Holliday, b. 1847,
(11) Lucretia Wear, b. 1874, (12) Dorothy Walker, b. 1901, (13) George Herbert
Walker Bush, b. 1924.
·
Elvis Presley, American entertainer. Descent: (1) Thomas Graves, (2)
Verlinda Graves, b.c. 1618, (3) Thomas Stone, b. 1632, (4) Anne Stone, b. 1669,
(5) Edward Moberly, b. 1696, (6) Samuel Mobley, b. 1739, (7) Elizabeth Mobley,
b. 1769, m. Richard Mansell, (8) William Mansell, b. 1795, m. Morning Dove
White, (9) John B. Mansell, b. 1828, m. Elizabeth Gilmore, (10) Anna Mansell,
b. 1854, m. Milege Obediah Smith, (11) Robert Lee Smith, b. 1878, m. Octavia
Lavinia Mansell, (12) Gladys Love Smith, b. 1912, m. Vernon Elvis Presley, (13)
Elvis Presley, b. 1935.
·
F. Scott Fitzgerald, American author. Descent: (1) Thomas Graves, (2) Ann
Graves, b.c. 1620, m. William Cotton, (3) Verlinda Cotton, b. 1640, (4) Sarah
Burdett, b. 1666, (5) Frances Fowke, b. 1691, (6) Cecelia Brown, b. 1730, (7)
Phillip Key, b. 1750, (8) Eliza Maynadier Key, b. 1792, (9) Cecelia Aston
Scott, b. 1832, (10) Edward Fitzgerald, b. 1853, (11) F. Scott Fitzgerald, b.
1896.
·
William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper
mogul. Descent: (1) Thomas Graves,
(2) John Graves, b.c. 1611, (3) Ralph Graves, b. 1629, (4) Ralph Graves, b.
1653, (5) Henry White Graves, b. 1692, (6) Rachel Graves, b. 1734, (7) John
Williams Hendricks, b. 1755, (8) Lucy Hendricks, b. 1794, (9) Elizabeth
Collins, b. 1799, (10) George F. Hearst, b. 1820, (11) William Randolph Hearst,
b. 1863.
Descended
from Samuel Graves of Lynn, MA (gen. 83)
·
Robert Frost, American poet. Descent: (1) Samuel Graves, (2) Mark
Graves, b. 1623, (3) Hannah Graves, b. 1657, (4) Dorcas Abbott, b. 1697, (5)
Nathan Holt, b. 1725, (6) Sarah Holt, b. 1758, (7) Samuel Abbott Frost, b. 1795,
(8) William Prescott Frost, b. 1823, (9) William Prescott Frost, b. 1850, (10)
Robert Frost, b. 1874.
·
Lucille Ball, American actress and
comedian. Descent: (1) Samuel
Graves, (2) Samuel Graves, b. 1628, (3) Hannah Graves, b. 1668, (4) Elizabeth
Pottle, b. 1696, (5) Elizabeth Lowe, b. 1720, (6) Daniel Jewell, b. 1744, (7)
Simeon Jewell, b. 1780, (8) Daniel Jewell, b. 1806, (9) Anna J. Durrell, b.
1833, (10) Nellie R. Durrell, b. 1856, (11) Henry Durrell Ball, b. 1887, (12)
Lucille Ball, b. 1911.
Descended
from Thomas Graves of Nahant, MA (gen. 213)
·
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 19th President
of the U.S. Descent: (1) Thomas
Graves, (2) Mary Graves, b.c. 1615, m. Hugh Alley, (3) Mary Alley, b. 1642, m.
John Lindsey, (4) Sarah Lindsey, b. 1675, m. Joseph Jacobs, (5) Joseph Jacobs,
b. 1705, m. Mary Storrs, (6) Sarah Jacobs, b. 1735, (7) Roger Birchard, b.
1756, m. Drusilla Austin, (8) Sophia Birchard, b. 1792, (9) Rutherford Birchard
Hayes, b. 1822.
Descended
from Thomas Graves of Hartford, CT (gen. 168)
·
Emily Dickenson, American poet. Descent: (1) Thomas Graves, (2) Isaac
Graves, b. 1620, (3) Mary Graves, b. 1647, (4) Hannah Frary, b. 1683, (5)
Nathan Dickinson, b. 1712, (6) Nathan Dickinson, b. 1735, (7) Samuel Fowler
Dickinson, b. 1776, (8) Edward Dickinson, b. 1803, (9) Emily Dickenson, b. 1830.
·
Ellen Louise Axson, first wife of U.S.
President Woodrow Wilson. Descent:
(1) Thomas Graves, (2) John Graves, b. 1622, m(1) Mary Smith, (3) Mary Graves,
b. 1654, m(1) Samuel Ball, (4) Mary Ball, b. 1673, m. John Hitchcock, (5) John
Hitchcock, b. 1692, (6) Miriam Hitchcock, b. 1720, (7) Alexander Bliss, b. b.
1763, (8) Margaret Bliss, b. 1794, (9) Margaret Jane Hoyt, b. 1838, (10) Ellen
Louise Axson, b. 1860.
·
Richard Bedford Bennett, first Canadian Prime
Minister to be a member of the House of Lords. Descent: (1) Thomas Graves, (2) John Graves, b. 1622, (3)
Mary Graves, b. 1654, (4) Mary Ball, b. 1673, (5) John Hitchcock, b. 1692, (6)
Abigail Hitchcock, b. 1718, (7) David Hoar, b. 1743, (8) Mary Hoar, b. 1782,
(9) David Stiles, b. 1812, (10) Henrietta Stiles, b. 1844, (11) Richard Bedford
Bennett, b. 1870.
·
Lillian Gish, American movie and TV
star. Descent: (1) Thomas Graves,
(2) John Graves, b. 1622, (3) Mary Graves, b. 1654, (4) Mary Ball, b. 1673, (5)
Mary Hitchcock, b. 1699, (6) Othniel Taylor, b. 1719, (7) Othniel Taylor, b.
1753, (8) Clorinda Taylor, b. 1790, (9) Emily Ward Barnard, b. 1820, (10)
Elizabeth Ellen Robinson, b. 1851, (11) Mary Robinson McConnell, b. 1875, (12)
Lillian Gish, b. 1893.
===============================================
ABOUT THIS BULLETIN:
This
bulletin is written and edited by Kenneth V. Graves, ken.graves@gravesfa.org.
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.
COPYRIGHTS:
Although
the contents of this bulletin are copyrighted by the Graves Family Association
and Kenneth V. Graves, you are hereby granted permission, unless otherwise
specified, to re-distribute part or all to other parties for non-commercial
purposes only.
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