GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN
Vol. 14, No. 9, Sept. 29,
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
**
Special DNA Testing Offer from Family Tree DNA
**
Autosomal DNA Charts on the GFA Website, and Some Ways They Can Help You
**
Misleading and Incorrect Information in Genealogies
**
New YouTube Video Channel from FTDNA
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
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GENERAL
COMMENTS
This
issue is especially about autosomal DNA testing, including the FTDNA sale for
their Family Finder test, and some of the recent charting effort to use
autosomal testing to show Graves and Greaves ancestry.
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SPECIAL DNA
TESTING OFFER FROM FAMILY TREE DNA
Family Tree DNA is offering a special, limited-time
sale to entice present customers to upgrade and to try to get new
customers. The prices are good,
and I doubt that they will be repeated soon. I especially recommend the Family Finder test. It tests for all your ancestral lines
at least 5 or 6 generations back, and can often be used to determine
Graves/Greaves ancestry and other specific ancestry much farther back, as
discussed elsewhere in this issue of the GF Bulletin.
They
sent a notice to all present customers saying: “It seems every time we run a flash
sale a few people e-mail us days later, they were
traveling, sick or just had not looked at their e-mails in time, so for all of
you who want to entice a friend, neighbor or reluctant relative to get involved
in Genetic Genealogy here's one more opportunity, but
it will last for only 72 hours.
We are gearing this sale for newcomers and upgrades
by promoting the Family Finder and the Full Mitochondria Sequence (FMS). This
sale starts Friday, September 28, at 12:00 am and ends Sunday, September 30, at
11:59 PM.” (This is Central U.S.
time.)
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New Kits |
Current Price |
SALE PRICE |
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$199 |
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$199 |
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$398 |
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Upgrades |
Current Price |
SALE PRICE |
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$199 |
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$199 |
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$199 |
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$199 |
As with all promotions, orders need to be placed
by the end of the sale and payment must be made by the end of this sale. For more information, click here.
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AUTOSOMAL DNA
CHARTS ON THE GFA WEBSITE, AND SOME WAYS THEY CAN HELP YOU
As all
of you probably know by now, autosomal DNA testing is a technique to test the mixed DNA that we all inherit from
both our mother and father, and from all our ancestral lines. It has the
potential for a major impact on finding and proving ancestors and other
relatives. Although we can only
count on it passing on DNA segments from 5 or 6 generations back, we sometimes
find sizeable DNA segments from much farther back. The chart for genealogy 270 shows examples
of that, where DNA has been matched 9 generations back (8th
cousins) and the Davenport
chart goes back 11 generations (10th cousins). The test results shown on the
Davenport chart provided confirmation not only that Ann Davenport was the wife
of Thomas Graves, born 1691, in genealogy 270, but also provided support for
Martin Davenport as her brother, Davis Davenport and Ann Woodruff as her
parents, and John Davenport as her grandfather.
APPLYING THIS EXAMPLE TO OTHER
GENEALOGIES
The reason the two charts
mentioned above were able to show the ancestries and relationships mentioned
is because many tests were run on descendants from many lines. Many of the tests showed no matching
for the Graves or the Davenport lines, which was expected when trying to find
matches so far back. It appears,
however, that if enough descendants are tested on enough different lines,
matches will probably be found very far back.
One genealogy where this
technique should be used is for genealogy 169 for Capt. Thomas Graves. We should be able to show that his
wife was indeed a Croshaw, and we should also be able to substantiate that all
his stated children were indeed his children. The marvelous characteristic of autosomal DNA testing is
that it will work for males and females, and it doesn’t matter how they are
descended from an ancestor.
We should also be able to
determine (in many cases) how a Graves/Greaves family is descended from
another by finding a match with a wife as well as her husband. For instance, we might be able to show
how genealogy 150 (James Graves and Mary Copeland of VA & GA) is descended
from genealogy 220 (Francis Graves of VA), or confirm that genealogy 77 (John
Graves and Margery Harvey of Randolph Co., NC) is really descended from
genealogy 166 (and whether the other Graves families of Randolph Co., NC, are
related to it or are descended from genealogy 220). To make these discoveries and many others, however, we need
your active help, and we need many more people to take autosomal DNA tests.
NEW AUTOSOMAL DNA CHARTS
Many new autosomal charts have
been created and can be accessed from the Autosomal DNA page on
the GFA website. These include
charts for genealogies 28, 65/168, 77, 83, 105, 116, 150, 152, 166, 168, 220,
247, 270, and others. These charts are only a beginning. There aren’t yet nearly enough tests
on the charts, and very few matches are presently shown. We need everyone's help to add to the
charts and to provide more information for additional charts. We suggest that
everyone (both males and females) take this new test (Family Finder at Family
Tree DNA and Relative Finder at 23andMe). You can sign up for the Family
Finder test by scrolling down the main page of the GFA website to the DNA
Study section and clicking on the link for "How to sign up."
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MISLEADING
AND INCORRECT INFORMATION IN GENEALOGIES
There
are two methods of determining ancestry.
One is to do traditional research and the other is to do DNA
testing. Neither is sufficient by
itself. They should be used
together for best results.
Most
people don’t really do research.
They just copy what someone else has done, with varying amounts of
verification. There has always
been incorrect family tree information around, and the Internet has made it
easier to find and repeat. Many
of the submitted genealogies on Ancestry.com and elsewhere have incorrect
information, some extremely obvious, such as a child being born before his
parents. There is even some
incorrect information in a few of the genealogies on the Graves Family
Association website, although I hope there is very little of that. We have worked very hard over the years
to verify information by research and DNA testing, and we are continuing to
improve the completeness and correctness of what is on the site.
See
the previous article for some ideas about using DNA to find the ancestry of our
Graves and Greaves ancestors.
ANCESTRY OF CAPT. THOMAS
GRAVES OF VA (GEN. 169)
The
information that I know about the family of Capt. Thomas Graves is summarized
on the Ancestral Research page (under the Research tab at the top of every
page of the GFA website). At the
bottom of that page is a list of “Specific Research Projects”, including one
for Capt. Thomas Graves. Perhaps the most common ancestry
claimed for Capt. Thomas Graves is that he was a son of Thomas Graves and Joan
Blagrove, both of Lamborne or Lambourn, Berkshire, England. I have hired a couple of genealogists
in England and Salt Lake City to try to find substantiation of this claim, and
they could find nothing to support it.
I have asked many people who have included this ancestry in their
family tree to provide a source, and no one has been able to do so. If anyone can provide evidence of this
ancestry, I would very much like to see it. If there is no evidence, it should be removed from family
trees.
ANCESTRY OF NEW ENGLAND
GRAVES FAMILIES
Sometimes
people see names that are the same, and dates and places that seem to match,
and make unwarranted assumptions.
A recent example of that was the family tree of someone who is
descended from John Graves of Concord, MA (gen. 166), who had his immigrant
ancestor as the Thomas Graves of Hartford, CT (gen. 168), and then showed the
ancestors of that Thomas Graves as those of Rear Admiral Thomas Graves of
Charlestown, MA (gen. 28). Errors
like that can be avoided by being a bit more careful about checking facts.
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NEW YOUTUBE
VIDEO CHANNEL FROM FTDNA
The
world is changing very quickly, television seems to be moving to the Internet,
and YouTube seems to be a serious contender for offering program content. An interesting example of this is a
new video channel on YouTube from Family Tree DNA. You can see the channel by clicking here. When I first looked, there were 8
videos, starting with a 28-minute “FTDNA – discover the story of you”,
which seems to include the other 7.
You can also start the viewing on the FTDNA website here.
This
is obviously part of FTDNA’s effort to reach a larger audience, and it
includes some new pricing plans: (1) a time-pay plan where the balance isn’t
due for 6 months, and (2) a 10% discount for paying up front.
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ABOUT
THIS BULLETIN:
This
bulletin is written and edited by Kenneth V. Graves, ken.graves@gravesfa.org.
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BULLETIN:
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