GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN
Vol. 15, No. 12, Oct. 29,
2013
A
Free, Occasional, Online Summary of Items of Interest to Descendants of all
Families of Graves, Greaves, Grieves, Grave, and other spelling variations
Worldwide
===============================================
Copyright
© 2013 by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves. All rights reserved.
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CONTENTS
**
General Comments
**
Clarification and Additions to the Capt. Thomas Graves Article in the Previous
Issue
**
Comparison of Autosomal DNA Tests
**
Why Cousins May Not Match With Autosomal DNA
**
Why Predicted Cousin Relationships May Be Wrong
**
Determining Ethnicity Percentages
**
Project Administrator Settings on Family Tree DNA
**
Origins of Americans and Population Differences Within the U.S. and Canada
**
Using FamilySearch Research Wiki To Learn How To Research
**
Free New England Historic Genealogical Society Webinar Series
**
Native American Ancestry and Webinar on U.S. Death Records
**
Ancestry of Genealogies 214 and 506
**
New Discoveries From Our DNA Study
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
===============================================
GENERAL
COMMENTS
New
developments in genetic genealogy seem to be happening so quickly these days
that it is difficult to keep up.
And new data for conventional genealogy research keeps being added at
FamilySearch, Ancestry, and other websites. Now, if these developments only translated into rapid
advances in our discovery of our ancestors and connections between Graves/Greaves
families, we would all be happier.
However, we are continuing to make gradual progress, as some of the
articles in this issue of the bulletin discuss.
===============================================
CLARIFICATION
AND ADDITIONS TO THE CAPT. THOMAS GRAVES ARTICLE IN THE PREVIOUS ISSUE
In
the last issue of this bulletin was an article entitled “Descendants of Capt.
Thomas Graves of Virginia.” In
that article I said:
(1) Of the 3 sons attributed to
Capt. Thomas Graves, only John (through his grandson Ralph) appears to be his
son.
(2) Thomas may have been a son
of Katherine, but was not a son of Capt. Thomas Graves.
(3) Francis was definitely not a
son of Capt. Thomas Graves, but was definitely descended from the Greaves
family of genealogy 228.
(4) “Regarding descendants of
the daughters of Capt. Thomas Graves, there is no known evidence to indicate
that they were not his daughters.”
(We need to pursue DNA evidence to substantiate the ancestry of the
daughters via autosomal DNA and, where possible, via mitochondrial DNA
testing.)
On
our GFA Facebook page, Shannon Christmas asked: I, too, found the discussion on
gen. 169 intriguing. Especially interesting: "The Jamestowne Society is
presently only accepting proven descendants of son John (through his grandson
Ralph) as descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves." So, The Jamestowne Society
will not accept proven descendants of Captain Thomas Graves' daughters?
(My
comment: See my bullet point #4 above.)
Pam
Roland Miller said: A lot of people just had the genealogical rug pulled out
from under their feet. They know who their forefathers aren't, but not who they
are - and what do you do when that happens after hundreds of years of thinking
you knew who your ancestors were? What a bad situation.
(My
comment: I first published notice of this situation in the March 22, 2002 issue
of this GF Bulletin. I and others
were reluctant to draw the increasingly obvious conclusions from the DNA
results because of the impact on those descended from the lines affected. However, in the Dec. 15, 2005 issue of
this bulletin (backed up by data and statements on the GFA website) I published
an article stating: “We have shown by DNA testing that the descendants attributed
to Capt. Thomas Graves of VA are almost certainly descended from 4 separate immigrants…” After that date, genealogy 270 was
created for some of those that had previously been thought to descend from
Capt. Thomas Graves’ son John, and genealogy 220 was created for Francis
Graves, previously thought to be a son of Capt. Thomas Graves. It seems quite possible that Francis
was closely related to Rear Adm. Thomas Graves (gen. 28) or his family. One final comment is that some of the
descendant lines attributed (often correctly) to Capt. Thomas Graves were
documented before the 1900s, but most of the published studies did not occur
until the first half of the 20th century, with the manuscripts of
John Card Graves (undocumented and containing many errors for this family) and
the various articles by Mrs. P. W. Hiden in the William & Mary Quarterly
and Tyler’s Quarterly. The
addition of Francis Graves as a son of Capt. Thomas Graves was only done in
1935 and 1936 as a result of the research and publication of articles by Mr.
William Montgomery Sweeny and) Mrs. Hiden.)
Shannon
said: That is one way to receive such news. Another: one can now jettison the
erroneous data collected over the years, renew the search for truth, and begin
repairing the family narrative. That said, what happens to those individuals
accepted into lineage societies on the basis of erroneous data? Do such
societies rescind membership?
I
responded:
Shannon,
I have had conversations with Lyndon Hart, Registrar of the Jamestowne Society,
and he confirmed the statement about "sons" of Capt. Thomas Graves.
My comments in the article in the GF Bulletin were intended to be about the
descendants of these "sons". I have not discussed descendants of the
daughters with him, so I don't know for sure. As far as I know, the Jamestown
Society is still accepting descendants of the daughters as descendants of Capt.
Thomas Graves. It would be helpful if someone could confirm for us whether that
is correct. However, I did intend to emphasize in the article that we should
try to confirm with DNA that the daughters are indeed his daughters (this will
be difficult but not impossible), especially since I believe that would tell us
more about Capt. Thomas Graves.
When
I visited with Fred Dorman (compiler and editor of Adventurers of Purse and Person for the Order of First Families of
Virginia) and discussed the issue of our DNA study disproving some of the
important, long-held beliefs about the descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves, he
surprised me by saying that he was not at all surprised by the results.
Regarding
Shannon's question, whenever I have asked the Jamestowne Society about what
they would do if the line of an existing member were disproven, the answer has
always been that all descendants of the disproven line would stay as members,
but no new members would be accepted on that line. I suspect that is the answer that most such societies would
give.
I
don't know for sure whether the Jamestowne Society accepts DNA results as part
of their proof, but it is very obvious that it is being taken into account in a
major way. As I said in my recent article and have said before, DNA science is
rapidly improving its capability and decreasing its cost, doing a DNA study on
the not-uncommon surname of Graves (and related names) is a huge and complex
job for which no one person has enough time, and help is very much needed for
us to learn as much as we can in a reasonable amount of time. It's an exciting
and rapidly changing time.
===============================================
COMPARISON OF
AUTOSOMAL DNA TESTS
I
am asked occasionally about the differences between the various autosomal DNA
tests, which one is best, and whether it is helpful to take more than one. This question is especially pertinent
when trying to decide whether special offers such as the ones from the various
testing companies are good deals.
The
tests available are from 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, Ancestry.com, and the
National Geographic Society.
COMPARISON OF AUTOSOMAL DNA
TESTS
Many
people took the Genographic test from National Geographic because that’s the
first one they were aware of, or they took the Ancestry test because Ancestry
advertized a lot or they were already an Ancestry customer, or they took the
FTDNA test because they had done other DNA testing with them. A comprehensive autosomal DNA testing
chart can be seen on the ISOGG website by
clicking here. Some of the important features of each
company are:
23andMe:
Best biogeographical ancestry analysis, most people in database (but many of
those for health reasons only)
FTDNA’s
Family Finder: Available worldwide, low shipping charges, surname and other
support groups, many other DNA testing options, can upload test data from other
companies, best chromosome browser, best user response
Ancestry.com’s
AncestryDNA: Largest collection of user-submitted genealogies, no ability to
see matching DNA segments, no storage of samples for future testing
National
Geographic Geno 2.0: Available worldwide, provided by the nonprofit National
Geographic Society
SHOULD YOU TEST WITH ANOTHER
COMPANY?
Should
you take other tests if you have already taken the Genographic test or another
autosomal test? This depends on
what your objectives are and whether you can afford to spend the money. If you can afford it, I think it’s
always a good idea to test at more than one company. You will get many more matches, which will help you find new
ancestors and cousins, and you will gain more insight into your ancestry with
the different tools that each company has.
ALWAYS UPLOAD YOUR TEST DATA
TO GEDMATCH
No
matter how many autosomal tests you take, you should always download the test
data and upload it to GEDmatch.
The analytical tools there are not available anywhere else.
===============================================
WHY COUSINS
MAY NOT MATCH WITH AUTOSOMAL DNA
NON-MATCHING OF COUSINS
Roberta
Estes recently published an interesting article on her DNAeXplained blog,
called “Why
Don’t I Match My Cousin?”
Since this question arises often in the analysis and understanding of
autosomal DNA test results, it is important to understand it. The most important facts to understand
are that we inherit half our DNA from each parent, but there is no way to
predict what ancestral DNA will be in those halves. On average, we inherit a quarter of our DNA from each
grandparent and an eighth from each great-grandparent, but it is possible
(although unlikely) that we could inherit not enough DNA from one of our
grandparents or great-grandparents to show as a match, and more than expected
from another. Even if we inherit
the average amount of DNA from grandparents, which genes we inherit is random.
Roberta
gives the probability of matching various cousins, and explains that even if we
don’t match first or second cousins, getting other family members to test will
show matches. In addition to
having other family members test, downloading non-matching DNA data to GEDmatch and using the analytical tools
there will often show that there really is a match. I strongly recommend putting all autosomal DNA test results
on GEDmatch.
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON
MATCHING AND GENEALOGY EDUCATIION
Angie
Bush, on her Genes and Trees blog,
recently wrote an article entitled Genetic
Genealogy Education. She mentioned
that each Tuesday and Thursday Ancestry.com presents short 30-minute
webinar/chat sessions on various subjects, including DNA. She also mentioned the value of the email lists of
ISOGG (the International Society of Genetic Genealogy).
Regarding
matching of cousins on a particular line, she points out that a person may not
have any matches because no one from that line has tested yet. It is also possible that there is an
error in the ancestral line, and someone you thought was your cousin really
isn’t. She also states that a
person “certainly did inherit DNA from all their ancestors in the first 5
(probably 6) generations, including a grandparent”, and implies that this would
definitely show as a match.
However, that isn’t necessarily so. Not only do we have the issue of variable percentages of DNA
inherited from grandparents and earlier ancestors, but there is also the issue
of the lengths of the segments of DNA inherited. Sometimes a very long segment of DNA will be passed on from
an ancestor much farther back than 6 generations, but it is also possible that
all the segments from a recent ancestor will be shorter than the minimum needed
to qualify as a match. As has been
mentioned previously, however, this situation can be detected by uploading the
DNA test results for the people of interest to GEDmatch.com.
===============================================
WHY PREDICTED
COUSIN RELATIONSHIPS MAY BE WRONG
If
I seem to be referring you to blog posts by Roberta Estes frequently these
days, it is because she often writes about subjects of timely interest in a
very helpful way. Her latest
post explains why the cousin relationships predicted by testing companies
are often wrong. She says this happens because genetic predictions
must use math models and averages, but our actual DNA doesn’t follow those
rules, and then she explains what this means.
The
article also explains why relationships can often be found way beyond the 5th
or 6th generation that is often cited. She cites an
article by Dr. Steve Mount that provides the interesting insights that:
The
more children and the more descendants a particular line of your ancestors had,
the more likely you are to receive genetic material from the ancestors of that
line, and some of that genetic material is apt to be passed on in relatively
large segments. That is exactly
what I have observed with some ancestral lines, whereas others can’t be traced
easily at all.
===============================================
DETERMINING
ETHNICITY PERCENTAGES
Roberta
Estes, in a recent
post on her DNAeXplained blog explains how the DNA testing companies
determine the ethnicity percentages of those who order autosomal DNA tests, and
what those percentages mean. The
article provides an excellent, comprehensive, and clear summary of the subject.
===============================================
PROJECT
ADMINISTRATOR SETTINGS ON FAMILY TREE DNA
Family
Tree DNA is the only DNA testing company that provides for and encourages
projects for surnames and other categories of testers. I was recently asked what degree of
access should be given to project administrators. The information below is from the help on the FTDNA
website. Since the purpose of
belonging to a group for those tested is to be able to compare results and receive
help, obviously some degree of access and privilege is needed for
administrators. My recommendation
is to provide limited access unless you don’t intend to be involved with
managing your own results, in which case full access may be appropriate. “Read only” access is never
recommended.
For each project to which you belong, you may choose to allow the administrators of that project to have access and change your settings and personal information. If you wish to grant a Project Administrator full access to your kit, please provide them with your kit number and password. Once full access has been granted, the Administrator's name will be shown in the Full Access table. Full access may be revoked at any time by changing your password on the Change Password tab below.
Feature |
Read Only |
Limited |
Full |
Change mtDNA Match Notifications |
X |
✓ |
✓ |
Change YDNA Match Notifications |
X |
✓ |
✓ |
Edit Contact Information |
X |
✓* |
✓ |
Edit Personal Profile Photo |
X |
✓ |
✓ |
Set Population Finder Survey |
X |
✓ |
✓ |
Change Facts & Genes Newsletter Subscription |
X |
X |
✓ |
Change mtDNA CR Display Settings |
X |
X |
✓ |
Change Password |
X |
X |
✓ |
Change Project Administrator Settings |
X |
X |
✓ |
Change Project E-mail Settings |
X |
X |
✓ |
Download Family Finder Raw Data |
X |
X |
✓ |
Download mtDNA FASTA File |
X |
X |
✓ |
Edit Beneficiary Information |
X |
X |
✓ |
Edit Family Finder Known Relationships |
X |
X |
✓ |
Edit Personal Profile Information |
X |
X |
✓ |
Leave Projects |
X |
X |
✓ |
===============================================
ORIGINS OF
AMERICANS AND POPULATION DIFFERENCES WITHIN THE U.S. AND CANADA
Debbie
Kennett wrote on the ISOGG list: “Howard Mathieson shared
this very interesting
blog post in the Surname
Distribution Maps group on Facebook.
There are some particularly interesting maps showing the various regions
in
the British Isles and France from which the American settlers were
drawn.
The maps also demonstrate the problems that will arise if the
American population is used by DNA testing companies as a proxy for the
population of
Europe.
If you're on Facebook and are
interested in maps I highly recommend Howard's group.”
Dave
Dowell, another ISOGG member who has his own
blog (Dr D Digs Up Ancestors), wrote: “This came at a fortuitous time as I am discussing Fischer’s Albion’s
Seed and Dollarhide’s British Origins of American Colonists, 1629-1775
in my genealogy seminar this Wednesday. Some to these maps will supplement
those of Dollarhide in helping those attending to understand how knowing about
migration patterns can help them narrow down the European homelands of their
immigrant ancestors to North America.”
===============================================
USING FAMILY
SEARCH RESEARCH WIKI TO LEARN HOW TO RESEARCH
Dick
Eastman, in this weekly genealogy newsletter of Oct. 7, 2013, mentioned that
the FamilySearch Research wiki published its 75,000th article. This wiki is a free online guide
explaining how to find ancestors in different time periods and places around
the world. You can read more in an
article by Nathan W. Murphy in the FamilySearch Blog.
===============================================
FREE NEW
ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY WEBINAR SERIES
The
website of the New England
Historic Genealogical Society is an excellent resource for American
genealogical research, not only in New England, but beyond. Their databases provide online access
to more than 200 million records. Their
announcement of a webinar series about how to effectively search these
databases states:
“Join
Web Content Coordinator Andy Hanson-Dvoracek for this two-part webinar series
and learn how to get the most out of your database searches. All you need to
participate in these free, live events is an Internet connection and computer
speakers. This series is ideal for current NEHGS members who have full access
to all online databases, or for anyone interested in becoming a member who
wishes to learn what online resources we offer.
Sign
up today--space is limited!
Part
I: November 20, 3-4 pm EST Register!
Part
II: December 18, 3-4 pm EST Register!
All
registrants will also receive a post-event email with a link to a recording of
the webinar.”
===============================================
NATIVE
AMERICAN ANCESTRY AND WEBINAR ON U.S. DEATH RECORDS
NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTRY
An
interesting blog article about Native American maternal haplogroup A2a and B2a
dispersion can be found here.
WEBINAR ON U.S. DEATH
RECORDS
Fold3
is sponsoring a live webinar on U.S. death records and how they can help
research your family tree on Thursday, Nov. 14, and Saturday, November 16. Cost is $9.95/seat, and you can find
more information and make reservations here.
===============================================
ANCESTRY OF GENEALOGIES 214 AND 506
The
question of the ancestry of these two genealogies was brought to mind by the
article about the Carnegie Heroes in the Oct. 12 issue of this bulletin, where
William H. Graves was found to be descended from genealogy 214. This genealogy is for Joel Graves of
NY, who was born about 1770 and lived in NY, and some of whose descendants
lived in Lenawee Co., MI.
There
is also a genealogy 506 for William Graves and Elizabeth ‑‑‑‑‑‑
of NY and Lenawee Co., MI. In the
1850 census for Lenawee Co., MI, Joel Graves, 76, farmer, born in MA, was
living with them. It is likely
that Joel was William’s father, and very possible that this is the Joel Graves
of genealogy 214, some of whose descendants also lived in Lenawee Co., MI.
It has
been suspected that this family may be descended from Thomas Graves of
Hartford, CT (genealogy 168), since the name Joel Graves is used in that
family, and some of the descendants lived in Lenawee Co., MI. There is also a possibility that this
family is descended from genealogy 166 (John Graves of Concord, MA), but that
has seemed less likely. However, a
descendant of genealogy 214 has been DNA tested and found to match genealogy 166
(and also genealogy 28).
To
try to sort out some of the unknowns, I looked at the 1820 census for Joel
Graves in NY. There were two of
them, both in Roxbury, Delaware Co., NY, one listed as Jr. Joel Graves Sr. was 45+ in 1820 (b.
before 1775) with 1 female 16-45, and 1 female 45+ in his household. Joel Graves Jr. was also 45+ with 5
younger males, 1 female 16-45, and 4 younger females. In the 1830 census for Roxbury, Delaware Co., NY, there was
only one Joel Graves, age 50-60 (b. 1870-1880), with 7 males under 20, 1 female
40-50, and 5 females under 20. In
1840 there was a Joel Graves in Watertown, Jefferson Co., NY, but he was 30-40,
obviously not the one born 1770-1780.
Joel Graves has not been identified in the 1810 census in NY or MA, nor
in the 1840 census.
Mr.
Russell Kroum, who provided most of the information for gen. 506, believes that
William Graves of gen. 506 was a son of Joel Graves, born 1764, who was a son
of Ebenezer Graves and Prudence Hastings of genealogy 168. The information about that Joel Graves
is as follows:
Joel Graves (480) was born 10 Oct. 1764
in Greenfield, MA. He married Elizabeth Billings on 19 Jan. 1792. He bought 100 acres of land in
Wilmington, Windham Co., VT, for 53 pounds, 19 April 1793. He first moved to Rowe, Franklin Co.,
MA (on the border with VT), and later to VT. (Rowe is about 26 miles northwest of Greenfield, MA, and
Wilmington, VT is just about 15 miles north of Rowe, MA.)
Joel
may have moved to Williamstown, Orange Co., VT, since a Joel Graves is listed
there in 1810-1840. If this is the
same Joel Graves, he couldn’t be the one in Delaware Co., NY.
Although
it is possible that this was the Joel Graves of Lenawee Co., MI, even though
the dates of birth aren’t as close as they should be, I don’t know how to
explain the two men next to each other named Joel Graves in the 1820 census of
Delaware Co., NY, since the Joel Graves of gen. 168 did not have a father named
Joel Graves. Unfortunately, I have
not been able to find a Joel Graves in either gen. 166 or gen. 28 that matches
the Joel Graves of Lenawee Co.
My tentative conclusions:
·
Joel Graves Sr. in the 1820 census was probably the father of the Joel
Graves Jr., and the Joel Graves Jr. was almost certainly the one in gen. 214
and was probably the one in the 1850 census who was the father of William
Graves (gen. 506).
·
The Joel Graves of gen. 214 and 506 was probably not descended from
gen. 168, since one descendant of 214 has been DNA tested and matches gen. 166
(although gen. 28 is a possibility).
The Joel Graves of gen. 168 is probably the one who moved to Orange Co.,
VT.
·
Joel Graves of gen. 214 is probably the same as Joel Graves of gen.
506.
Can
anyone help provide more evidence, and provide more information on descendants
and ancestry? Also, we need for
one or more male descendants of genealogy 506 with the Graves surname to take a
Y-DNA test (to confirm that genealogies 214 and 506 are the same family and
that they are descended from gen. 166 or 28).
===============================================
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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COPYRIGHTS:
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