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. 13, No. 1, June 17, 2011

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Copyright © 2011 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

** Limited Time Discounts on DNA Testing from FTDNA

** Possible Parents of John Graves of VA & Northamptonshire, England (Genealogy 270)

** Graves Family Members in the Great Migration to New England

** Book With Civil War Letters to be Published

** Correspondence of Azariah Graves of Caswell Co., NC

** Change Detection and Notification Feature on the GFA Website

** To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things

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GENERAL COMMENTS

This is the first Graves Family Bulletin since June of last year. For those of you who have been concerned, you haven’t been taken off the subscription list and I haven’t died or fallen ill. I just have too many other things to do. When I haven’t been starting a men’s chorus, trying to learn to play the piano (actually a keyboard), riding my bicycle, playing tennis, or being involved with family and church activities, I have continued to devote a lot of time to adding to the GFA website and the genealogies. So, much does continues to happen, just not as much as I would like.

Your help is appreciated, as always. There is always more genealogical research to be done, and new features that could make the website more valuable. Especially needed is more research on families in England, and research to find the earlier ancestry of families in the U.S. and elsewhere.

I hope you enjoy the variety of articles in this issue of the bulletin.

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LIMITED TIME DISCOUNTS ON DNA TESTING FROM FTDNA

DNA testing continues to be an extremely important tool for finding connections between the various Graves/Greaves/Grave families. There are still many genealogies on the Graves Family Association website that have not had any descendants tested. If yours is one of those, I urge you to try to find a male descendant with the Graves/Greaves surname and have him take a Y-DNA test. The 37-marker version of this test is recommended. More markers are helpful but not essential.

If you or one of your relatives has already taken a Y-DNA test at the 12 or 25-marker level, it would be helpful to upgrade to 37 or 67 markers. The current sale from Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) offers considerable savings on upgrades. Just log into your personal page on FTDNA and order the desired upgrade.

In this FTDNA sale, Family Finder tests are also greatly discounted. Family Finder is the autosomal test that tests for DNA from all of your ancestral lines (not just direct male or direct female) back at least 5 generations. It works as well for females as for males, and is also becoming increasingly helpful in finding and confirming ancestry. If you haven’t already taken this test, it would be very helpful to do so.

The following tests and discounted prices are what FTDNA is offering from June 15 through June 22, 2011. All orders must be placed and paid for by midnight, June 22, 2011, to receive the sale price. To order an upgrade, log into your personal page, and click on the “Special Offers” link found in the left-hand navigation bar. If cost is a problem, especially if you are not in the U.S., and especially if you are part of a genealogy that has not had any descendants tested, we may be able to pay for some or all of your testing. To inquire about this, contact Ken Graves at ken.graves@gravesfa.org.

SUMMER UPGRADE SALE PRICES

Family Finder	Was $289	Now $199
Y-DNA 12 to 25	Was $49	Now $35
Y-DNA 12 to 37	Was $99	Now $69
Y-DNA 12 to 67	Was $189	Now $148
Y-DNA 25 to 37	Was $49	Now $35
Y-DNA 25 to 67	Was $148	Now $114
Y-DNA 37 to 67	Was $99	Now $79
mt to FMS	Was $269	Now $229
mtPlus to FMS	Was $239	Now $199

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POSSIBLE PARENTS OF JOHN GRAVES OF VA & NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, ENGLAND (GENEALOGY 270)

Robert and Julie Atteberry have been conducting an exhaustive research study in preparing a book titled Out of the Mist – A Search for Richard Bostick’s Roots. An important part of this is a chapter on the ancestry of Thomas Graves who married Ann Davenport, probable in-laws of Valentine Bostick. The authors believe that the third child of Thomas Graves and Mary Perkins was Mary Graves, wife of Valentine Bostick.

They make a very compelling argument that John Graves (born about 1665) lived on the north side of the Pamunkey River (aka York River) in King William Co., Virginia, in the area of Pamunkey Neck. It appears that John Graves probably operated a ferry called Graves Ferry on the north side of the river opposite West Point and a place called Brick House, from about 1704 to about 1730 (when the family may have moved to Spotsylvania Co.).

They believe that John Graves was a son of William and Ann Graves, named as headrights under a patent issued to Peter ford and Edward Rackley in 1658 for 640 acres in New Kent Co., VA. It should be noted that Mrs. Hiden identified this William Graves as a younger son of John Graves, son of Capt. Thomas Graves of genealogy 169, but arguments are made that that is wrong. It is suggested that William Graves may have arrived in Virginia about 1655-1660 from Northamptonshire or Buckinghamshire, England, and been the progenitor of genealogy 270.

Their study is now on the Graves Family Association website. See the “research study” link in the first paragraph of the “What’s New” section on the main page of the website. It is hoped that more evidence will be developed in the future.

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GRAVES FAMILY MEMBERS IN THE GREAT MIGRATION TO NEW ENGLAND

According to the website of the Great Migration Study Project (at http://www.greatmigration.org), the goal of the project is to create comprehensive biographical and genealogical accounts of all immigrants to New England from 1620 to 1643, from the arrival of the Mayflower to the decline of immigration resulting from the beginning of the Civil War in England. Between these years about twenty thousand English men, women, and children crossed the Atlantic to settle New England. For a century and a half genealogists have been studying these families, and thousands of books and articles have been published as a result. The Project was conceived by Robert Charles Anderson and was proposed to the New England Historic Genealogical Society early in 1988. Anderson and the Society quickly reached an agreement and the Project officially began on November 15, 1988.

Six of the seven planned volumes of the series for immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, have now been published, and the Graves surname is included in Vol. 3. In addition, a 3-volume set of immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, and a volume of all known immigrants to Plymouth Colony, 1620-1633, have been published and are available for sale on the Great Migration website.

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BOOK WITH CIVIL WAR LETTERS TO BE PUBLISHED

Nancy Dana Wilson is in the process of publishing a book containing the U.S. Civil War letters written by her great-grandfather, Darius D. Priest, to his wife, L. Emeline Graves Priest. She wrote: “I have none of her letters to DDP, but I feel, since it was a correspondence between them, her “voice” can be heard by reading between the lines of his letters and I will try to tell as much of her story as I can from family lore.”

Lovina Emeline Graves, called Emeline, was born in 1832 in Mt. Holly, VT, first child of Lyman Graves and Rosetta Richardson, and granddaughter of William Graves and Betsey Thair of VT (genealogy 135).

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CORRESPONDENCE OF AZARIAH GRAVES OF CASWELL CO., NC

Rick Frederick, descended from genealogy 270, wrote: “In the 1850s, an Azariah Graves of Caswell County purchased considerable furniture from Thomas Day, a free black cabinetmaker who lived and worked in Milton, Caswell County, North Carolina. His work is now quite celebrated.

Part of the documentation of this furniture purchase by Azariah Graves is correspondence owned by a Graves family (or Graves descendants) in Gastonia, North Carolina. I would like to find out more about this Azariah Graves (believe it is one of two living in Caswell County at the time).”

If anyone has any idea who the people might be in Gastonia, North Carolina, let Rick know at rick@ncccha.org.

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CHANGE DETECTION AND NOTIFICATION FEATURE ON THE GFA WEBSITE

There has been a change detection feature on the main page of the Graves Family Association website for some time. It is at the top of the sidebar, but may be moved later. It is also on the charts and current news pages. This is an experiment, and will allow you to be notified automatically whenever a change is made to those page. To use it, just click on the OK, enter your email address, and follow instructions. If this works out, it will be put on other pages also. I have not yet added it to other pages because I have received very little feedback about it. Please let me know if you would like to have it added to other pages.

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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.

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.

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