GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN
Vol. 14, No. 11, Nov. 19,
2012
A
Free, Occasional, Online Summary of Items of Interest to Descendants of all
Families of Graves, Greaves, Grieves, Grave, and other spelling variations
Worldwide
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Copyright
© 2012 by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves. All rights reserved.
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CONTENTS
**
General Comments
**
New DNA Testing Sale From Family Tree DNA
**
Action Needed By You to Further Our Ancestral Research
**
More About Putting Your Autosomal Test Results on GEDmatch
**
Updates to the GFA Website
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
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GENERAL
COMMENTS
The
main reason for sending this Bulletin at this time is the DNA testing sale from
Family Tree DNA. Although 23andMe
and Ancestry.com now offer autosomal DNA testing, FTDNA continues to be the
best DNA company overall for its range of products, analytical tools to help
you use the test results effectively, and its customer service and support.
You
will also find some additional information about autosomal DNA testing in this
issue. If you have already taken
an autosomal test at Family Tree DNA or at 23andMe, or when you do place an
order and get your results, be sure to upload both your test results and a
Gedcom to GEDmatch.com.
The
DNA conference I attended Nov. 10 and 11 in Houston was very helpful. New ideas, techniques, and discoveries
were discussed. I had hoped to
report them in this issue of the Bulletin, but that will have to wait until
next month. For those of you in
the U.S., I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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NEW DNA
TESTING SALE FROM FAMILY TREE DNA
Family
Tree DNA has announced its annual yearend sale on DNA testing a little earlier
than usual this year.
Regarding
Y-DNA, any of you who have taken a Y-DNA test, but have tested for fewer than
37 markers, you should upgrade to at least 37 markers, and preferably to
67. If you are descended from a
genealogy where there has been no Y-DNA test, if you are a male with the
Graves/Greaves surname, you should take a test. If you aren’t in that group, you should try to find someone
who is and get him to test.
For
autosomal DNA (FTDNA’s test is Family Finder), anyone can be tested, male or
female, with any surname. If you
have Graves/Greaves ancestry, you should take the test. The more people who are tested, the
more apt we are to be able to find matches and DNA segments that identify a
particular ancestry.
To order this
special offer (if you are already an FTDNA customer), log in to your
personal page and click on the “Order An Upgrade” button in the upper right
corner. Links to the login pages for both existing and new customers are
provided below. For existing
customers, login to
order an upgrade. If you are not
presently an FTDNA customer, click here to order a new
kit. Then click on G under
surname projects and select Graves to order as part of the Graves/Greaves
project, and finally order the test or tests that you want on the next
page. Be sure to scroll all
the way down the order page so that you can see all options. ALL ORDERS
MUST BE PLACED AND PAID FOR BY MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012, 11:59:00 PM
CST TO RECEIVE THE SALE PRICES. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ACTION NEEDED
BY YOU TO FURTHER OUR ANCESTRAL RESEARCH
DATA GATHERING, ESPECIALLY
IN THE U.K.
In
the previous issue of the GF Bulletin was an article listing some actions that
should be taken by you and other Graves/Greaves descendants to further our DNA
studies. All of those actions
will contribute to our learning more about our ancestry and how the various
parts of our families are connected.
In addition, the following action is needed. Even with the magic of DNA, we still need traditional
records.
·
Search church records, wills, and other records in the U.K. for the
ancestry of earlier family members.
·
Search various records in the U.K. for more information about known
family members and their descendants.
·
Compile a database for each type of record found. You can use Microsoft Excel or any
other suitable spreadsheet or database for this. I have not yet established a
standard format for any data collection, so there is a need for that also.
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MORE ABOUT
PUTTING YOUR AUTOSOMAL TEST RESULTS ON GEDMATCH
In
the last issue of this bulletin I discussed GEDmatch.com and some of the
benefits of downloading autosomal DNA test results from Family Tree DNA and
23andMe, and uploading them (along with your GEDCOM) to GEDmatch. A major problem with matches on the
testing company sites is that they are only considered matches when a certain
minimum amount of DNA matches. In
contrast, on GEDmatch, even when not enough total DNA matches, the utilities
on that site are able to compare any two DNA samples, and they are also able
to show all people who match on a specified DNA segment.
If
you look at the autosomal DNA charts on the Graves Family Association website,
you can see that several of them have many descendants who have taken an
autosomal test. These include
genealogy 270 (45 tests), genealogy 28/220/152 (38 tests), genealogy 65/168
(27 tests), and genealogy 169 (20 tests). However, most of the people on a chart do not match many
(if any) of the others because they do not share enough total matching
DNA. Although we do not yet know
what the results would be if we could compare everyone on a chart to everyone
else on that chart, it is certainly possible that we would see a much greater
amount of matching if we could.
That is part of what the GEDmatch site allows us to do.
Therefore,
if you have already taken an autosomal test at Family Tree DNA or at 23andMe,
or when you do place an order and get your results, be sure to upload both
your test results and a GEDCOM to GEDmatch.com. Let me
know if you have any questions or need any help. Thanks.
UPDATES TO THE
GFA WEBSITE
Most
of the updating recently has been with the autosomal DNA charts. I will continue to do that, in
addition to the usual updating of the genealogies as time permits. No other major changes to the website
have happened recently.
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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 to gfa@gravesfa.org via PayPal.
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.