GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN
Vol. 14, No. 12, Dec. 27,
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
**
Highlights of the 8th Conference On Genetic Genealogy
**
Y-DNA Testing of Families Not Yet Tested
**
Using Autosomal DNA Testing and Charting to Find and Show Ancestry
**
Family Tree DNA Sale Continues Through Dec. 31
**
New Products for Ancestry Painting and Ethnic Mapping
**
Reduced Price and Big Growth Goal From 23andMe
**
Some Basics About Genealogies on the GFA Website
**
Help Needed
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
===============================================
GENERAL
COMMENTS
In
this issue there is more discussion of DNA testing, especially autosomal DNA
testing, for all your ancestral lines.
There are also a number of improvements in pricing and capabilities of
DNA tests that are exciting. A lot
more will be happening in 2013, so stay tuned.
We
hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and that you will continue to have a
safe and happy holiday season, and a wonderful New Year!
===============================================
HIGHLIGHTS OF
THE 8TH CONFERENCE ON GENETIC GENEALOGY
The
8th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy was held in
Houston, Texas, on Nov. 10 & 11, 2012. This conference is an annual event for DNA project
administrators, and is organized and run by Family Tree DNA. There are now approximately 7100 DNA
projects at FTDNA.
The
following summary is from my notes, and the blog articles of Emily Aulicino,
Debbie Kennett, and others. For
more information, see the Day
1 and Day
2 articles on the blog of Emily Aulicino.
In
his welcoming address, Bennett Greenspan, founder of Family Tree DNA, told us
that the company has been reorganized a bit and is now called Gene by Gene
which has under it several companies: Family Tree DNA for Ancestry, DNA Traits
for Health, DNADTC (DNA Direct to Consumer) for Research, and DNAFindings for
Paternity. The DNADTC division is
the first commercial company to offer a full genome sequence test! The
price is $5,495, but will certainly be lower in the future. This isn’t yet the $1,000 genome
testing that has been talked about for a while, but it is getting pretty close. This is a remarkable achievement,
considering that the entire genome was first sequenced in 2003 at a cost of
about 3 billion dollars. And it is
also remarkable that the first company offering this to the public is a genetic
genealogy company. There is
presently no support for interpreting the results from this test, since it is
mainly intended for academic researchers rather than the general public, but
you can still order it if you want.
Dr.
Spencer Wells who heads the Genographic
Project of the National Geographic Society talked with the group and
answered questions via Skype from Florence, Italy, where he was introducing the
Geno 2.0 test. The project tests for approximately
12,000 Y-DNA SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms, a type of genetic marker),
3,200 mtDNA SNPs, and 130,000 autosomal and X-chromosomal SNPs from across the
entire human genome to provide unprecedented ancestry-relevant information,
including ancient hominid ancestry.
The new chip they are using was specifically designed for genetic
anthropology; the SNPs were selected for substantial differences for about 450
worldwide populations; SNPs were specifically selected to measure interbreeding
between modern humans, Neandertals, and Denisovians; and all SNPs with known
medical association were removed.
For more information about this, including how to order it, go to their website. All the testing is done by Family Tree
DNA, and you can transfer the results to the FTDNA website for further use
after your test results are completed.
Judy
Russell, a genealogist with a law degree, writes the Legal Genealogist blog.
Her topic was “Regulating Genetic Genealogy – Does It Make
Sense?” She gave a very
interesting and informative talk, largely explaining the benefits of self-regulation
to rein in charlatans, eliminate unfair contract terms, and avoid
misrepresentation.
There
were also several presentations about how to manage DNA projects effectively,
including for all the various types of DNA.
An
interesting presentation was “Pinpointing Geographical Location” by Tyrone
Bowes, founder of Irish Origenes, Scottish Origenes, English Origenes, and Welsh Origenes
(being created). He uses the
concept of a genetic homeland where they family lived for perhaps hundreds of
years, and perhaps left information in place names. He starts with 12-marker
Y-DNA matches to find related surnames, and then goes to 37-marker
matches. Surname maps are either
on his website, or on the public
profiler site.
On
the second day:
A
meeting of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) was the first event on the agenda. The rapid growth of the Y-DNA
haplogroup tree was one of the subjects discussed.
A
very interesting and significant announcement was the new Y-DNA haplogroup A00,
disclosed in a joint presentation by Bonnie Schrack, Thomas Krahn and Michael
Hammer, entitled “In Search of the Root: Discovery of a Highly Divergent
Y-chromosome Lineage”. Through a
joint effort between project administrators and researchers, a new root of the
Y-DNA tree was found in haplogroup A, pushing the tree back thousands of years.
Rory
Van Tuyl gave an interesting presentation that showed how the effective use of
statistics can be extremely helpful.
Elliott
Greenspan, son of Bennett Greenspan, told us what is happening and what to
expect in 2013 with FTDNA in the computer area.
===============================================
Y-DNA TESTING OF FAMILIES NOT YET TESTED
One of our objectives is to connect all Graves
and Greaves families that are descended from a common ancestor. A major part of doing that is to find
one or more male descendants with an all-male line of descent from a male
Graves/Greaves ancestor. That
person will usually have Graves or Greaves as his surname. The only time that it is not possible
to find a descendant to test is if the earliest known ancestor is a female or
if there are no living male descendants with an all-male lineage.
If you or a close relative is an acceptable
candidate for testing, there is obviously no problem. However, sometimes there are no relatives you know of to
test, even though there may be distant cousins that you don’t know about who
qualify. If you are willing to
make the effort to search for people to take the test, especially if you are
willing to pay for the testing, I can give you guidance on who they are and how
to contact them.
===============================================
USING AUTOSOMAL DNA TESTING
AND CHARTING TO FIND AND SHOW ANCESTRY
MY PERSONAL ANCESTRAL LINES
One
of the things I am trying to do with my personal autosomal DNA test results
(from FTDNA’s Family Finder and 23andMe’s Relative Finder) is to find the
segments of DNA that are inherited from each of my ancestors. To do this, I have created a spreadsheet
with every match I have, the person that match is with, the chromosome and
position on the chromosome of the match, the surnames that we have in common,
and some other information. With
enough matches, and enough proven common ancestors, a picture of chromosome
segments inherited from specific ancestors begins to emerge.
Identifying
chromosome segments then allows me to look at the ancestry of other people who
match me on the same segments but aren’t aware of having that ancestry. Sometimes we will find that they do
indeed have the identified person as an ancestor, and other times the ancestor
won’t be found. This lack of
finding the ancestor may be because the person does match me with that surname
on that segment but the ancestry can’t be traced, or because the match on that
segment is “identical by state” rather than “identical by descent”, meaning
that the match is just by chance.
The
identifying of chromosome segments as inherited from a particular ancestor also
allows going to a database like GEDmatch (mentioned in a previous bulletin) to
look for everyone who matches me on a particular segment of a particular
chromosome to find other people who have that identified ancestor. My success with this on GEDmatch has
been mixed so far. However, FTDNA
is expecting to provide an enhanced version of this capability next year.
ALL GRAVES AND GREAVES LINES
To
identify the matching DNA segments inherited from a Graves or Greaves ancestor
for all the various Graves/Greaves families, a similar procedure is used. My first step was to put all people who
have taken an autosomal DNA test on a chart showing their line of descent from
the earliest known Graves/Greaves ancestor in their genealogy. Then I have tried to find people that
they match who are also in the same genealogy (descended from the same Graves/Greaves
ancestor). In some cases, the
matching person has not been in the Graves DNA project, so I have not known who
else they matched, and so I have tried to get them to join the project (if they
tested on FTDNA) or give me information about their matches (if they don’t join
our project or if they tested elsewhere).
As we get more people on each chart who have matches with each other, we
can begin to see which DNA segments are passed down from Graves ancestors (and
sometimes from other ancestors of interest, such as wives of Graves men).
All
the charts that have been created so far are on the Autosomal DNA page of the
GFA website. The probable matching
segments found to date are in the following chart.
No.
of Tests |
Gen.
No. |
Chromosome,
segment boundaries |
Probable
Ancestors |
25 |
169 |
6,160-161.5 |
Thomas
Graves & Katherine Croshaw |
|
|
5,
61-73 |
Maybe
Henry White Graves & Mary Williams |
|
|
12,
108-112 |
|
29 |
65,
168 |
4,
115-5-126.7 |
Ancestor
of 65 & 168 |
|
|
5,
66-82 |
(note
overlap with 169) |
46 |
270 |
7,
140-159 |
John
Graves, b.c. 1665 or his wife |
|
|
6,
4-8 |
Thomas
Graves, b. 1691 or Ann Davenport |
10 |
Davenport |
3,
112-143 |
John
Davenport, b.c. 1637 or his wife |
|
|
6,
4-8 |
Thomas
Graves, b. 1691 or Ann Davenport |
40 |
28,
152, 220 |
12,
114-124 |
Francis
Graves, b.c. 1630 |
|
|
18,
6.0-8.5 |
John
Greaves (b.c. 1575) & Sarah Malter |
8 |
166 |
Unknown |
Not
enough matches yet |
We
now need to get more people to take autosomal tests, more of those tested to
join the Graves DNA project or provide their data and matches, and more of
those tested (at either FTDNA or 23andMe) to download their autosomal data and
upload it to GEDmatch.
Also,
if you have taken an autosomal test at either FTDNA or 23andMe and you are not
included on the appropriate autosomal chart, please let me know. And let me know if you have identified
the common ancestor involved in any of your matches if it is a Graves/Greaves
ancestor or another ancestor shown on one of the charts.
===============================================
FAMILY TREE
DNA SALE CONTINUES THROUGH DECEMBER 31
This
sale for both new and existing customers of Family Tree DNA is still going
on. All orders must be placed and
paid for by Monday, Dec. 31, 2012, 11:59 PM Central Standard Time. You can see the details in the article
in the Nov. 19 issue of the Graves
Family Bulletin.
Y-DNA TESTING
If
you are descended from a Graves or Greaves family that has not yet had anyone
take a Y-DNA test, that is an essential tool for proving which ancestral family
you are part of. You should take a
37- or 67-marker Y-DNA test if you are a male with the Graves of Greaves
surname, or you should try to find such a person to take the test.
AUTOSOMAL DNA TESTING
No
mater who you are and what your line of descent is from a Graves or Greaves
ancestor, an autosomal DNA test is helpful, both for our Graves/Greaves DNA
program and for your other ancestral lines. The autosomal test is the one that tests all your ancestral
lines, but can only be counted on to go back 5 or 6 generations (although some
ancestor matches show up much farther back than that, since which segments of
DNA are inherited is a random process).
The new price (mentioned in the next paragraph) from 23andMe is even
more attractive than the one from FTDNA, but the other tests available from
FTDNA and the new analytical tools coming in 2013 are good reason to select the
Family Finder test.
There are only 2 companies right now that I would
consider for autosomal DNA testing. The one I usually recommend is Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) that offers
Family Finder at a special price of $199 through the end of this month. The
other company is 23andMe that is now
offering its product at $99. There are many benefits of ordering from FTDNA
(better support, a much greater offering of other DNA tests, and concentration
on DNA for genealogical purposes), but my recommendation is to order the test
from 23andMe for $99 plus postage, and then when the results are received,
download the results and transfer them to FTDNA for an $89 charge. That way,
your results will be at both companies to give you many more matches, and you
will not have paid any more than if you had just ordered one test directly from
FTDNA. Unlike with Y-DNA testing,
the more people who order an autosomal DNA test, the better, since that
increases the chance of finding the DNA segments inherited from your Graves
ancestor.
If you have already ordered an autosomal DNA test
from Family Tree DNA, you may also want to order the test from 23andMe (if you
can afford it). The results will
be similar, but you will have different analytical tools, and you will have
many additional matches to help you find cousins and shared ancestors. For the same reason, if you have tested
at 23andMe but not at FTDNA, you may want to download your results from
23andMe, pay the $89 transfer fee to FTDNA, and upload your results to FTDNA.
FREE AND SUBSIDIZED Y-DNA
TESTS FOR THOSE OUTSIDE THE U.S.
Because
of the many genealogies, especially in England, that have had no DNA testing,
we will consider paying some or all of the cost of a Y-DNA test for those in
other countries. The person to be
tested must be a male with the name of Graves. Greaves, or other spelling, and
their Graves/Greaves ancestry should be known. If you qualify or have someone who does, let us know.
===============================================
NEW PRODUCTS
FOR ANCESTRY PAINTING AND ETHNIC MAPPING
For
those of us who are most interested in using DNA to find and prove ancestry and
family relationships within the past several hundred years, the ancestry
painting and ethnic mapping capabilities may be of less interest. However, many of us are curious about
where our ancestors lived before surnames and recorded history.
NEW PRODUCT FROM 23ANDME
In
her blog, Your
Genetic Genealogist, CeCe Moore’s article of Dec. 6 gives details of an
improved and very interesting tool from 23andMe to show ancient ancestral
origins.
COMPARISON OF PRODUCTS FROM
ALL PROVIDERS
In
a subsequent blog
article, she reviews commercially available genetic ancestry tests from
Family Tree DNA, 23andMe, AncestryDNA (Ancestry.com), and National Geographic’s
Geno 2.0. She concludes that
23andMe’s product is the best choice for showing ancestral origins for a
moderate time span, whereas Geno 2.0 is a better choice for people most
interested in deep ancestry and anthropology. She also points out that much improvement is still needed.
Another
comparison of autosomal DNA tests has been compiled by Tim Jantzen and can be
downloaded as an Excel
chart.
CONCERN ABOUT NEGLECT OF
Y-DNA TESTING
There has been some concern that the
increasing availability and power of autosomal testing for near-term multi-lineal
genealogical purposes and for deep ancestry ethnic mapping is causing DNA
project administrators and others to neglect Y-chromosome testing and
comparison. When the Graves DNA
project at FTDNA was started in 2001, the project’s sole focus was to test men of
a multi-origin surname in order to identify lineages when the paper trail was
missing (and to substantiate or disprove existing paper trails). Filling
this need was what got this consumer DNA testing industry started. The concern of some is that the
attention to ethnic mapping is going to hurt recruiting for Y-chromosome
testing and comparison.
Although it is true that there has been
much discussion of ethnic mapping, the need for Y-DNA testing is still great,
and it is the only way that we can be sure that different Graves/Greaves
families or genealogies share a common Graves/Greaves ancestor. Mitochondrial
DNA (mtDNA) tests can be of some help in establishing ancestral connections
between Graves/Greaves families also.
And we are finding that autosomal DNA (to a much greater extent) can add
to the finding and substantiation of surname lineages (as discussed in another
article in this issue). As we add
to the extent of the genome tested and get improved analytical tools, I believe
that autosomal testing will be even more critical for finding and supporting
surname lineages. The fact that it
can also be used for ethnic mapping is nice, but shouldn't detract from its
usefulness in surname studies. The most obvious downside of the increasing emphasis
on autosomal testing is that we can only do so much, so if we spend a lot of
time and money on autosomal testing, we may have less time and money for Y-DNA.
===============================================
REDUCED PRICE
AND BIG GROWTH GOAL FROM 23ANDME
DNA
testing company 23andMe issued a press release on
Dec. 11 in which they announced a growth goal of one million customers and
reduced their no-subscription autosomal DNA test price from $299 to $99. The announcement stated: “Expanding the
company’s ability to reach and serve one million individuals supports 23andMe’s
goal to revolutionize health and wellness.” The company currently has 180,000 customers. Although it supports genetic genealogy,
the company’s main emphasis is in the area of health and disease prevention.
On our GFA Facebook page, the following
comment was posted on Dec. 17 about 23andMe’s reduced price: “I just thought I
would let you guys know - I was researching into why 23andMe dropped their DNA
price. It is a good deal - it plus the porting fee to FamilyTreeDNA is not bad.
However, 23andMe automatically
dumps your info into their research arm and can sell it. Therefore,
FamilyTreeDNA is still the better deal when you take all things into account.” (The porting/transfer fee to transfer
$23and Me Relative Finder results to FTDNA is $89, so adding that to the $99
for the Relative Finder test at 23andMe is a total of $188, compared to $199 to
take the Family Finder test at FTDNA.
Of course you don’t really end up with the same thing as taking the
Family Finder test, since the SNPs tested aren’t exactly the same, but you do
have the test results on two different sites.)
===============================================
SOME BASICS
ABOUT GENEALOGIES ON THE GFA WEBSITE
Sometimes people get confused between the words
genealogy and generation. I have compiled genealogies for all Graves families
back to the earliest known Graves ancestor. Each of those has been given a
number, called a genealogy number.
Within each genealogy, there are generations.
The earliest ancestor is generation 1. His (or her) children are generation 2,
etc.
All descendants in each genealogy are given an
identification (ID) number, starting with 1 for the earliest known ancestor,
and incrementing down to the last descendant in the genealogy. As more
descendants are added to the genealogy, some of these ID numbers will change.
===============================================
HELP NEEDED
Help
is very much needed in the following areas:
·
Maintaining and upgrading the GFA website. It would be nice to add many features and more content.
·
Assisting me with administering the DNA project.
·
Gathering data from census records, and from church and other records
in the U.K.
·
Updating and maintaining genealogies.
Please
contact me if you think you might be interested, and I will discuss details
with you.
===============================================
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.