GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN
Vol. 15, No. 4, March 30,
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
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Copyright
© 2013 by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves. All rights reserved.
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CONTENTS
**
General Comments
**
Y-DNA12 Test Sale Price and Permanent Price Reduction
**
Autosomal DNA Raw Data Now Available on Ancestry
**
Please Sign Online Petition to Ancestry.com
**
Upload Your Autosomal DNA Results to GEDmatch
**
Autosomal DNA Project for Descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA (Gen. 169)
**
A Personal Evaluation of Deep Ancestry DNA Results
**
Teach Your Children and Relatives About Their Family History
**
More than You Ever Wanted to Know
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
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GENERAL
COMMENTS
There
seems to be a lot about DNA testing in this issue. That’s because so much is happening in that area, with new
developments being announced weekly.
I
will continue to provide news about traditional genealogy as I become aware of
it.
I
wish you all a happy and blessed Easter!
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Y-DNA12 TEST
SALE PRICE AND PERMANENT PRICE REDUCTION
Family
Tree DNA has just announced a significant price reduction for its 12-marker
Y-DNA test. They stated: “Due
to the recent upgrade of our state-of-the-art laboratory, coupled with research
and development into increasing lab efficiency, we are able to permanently
offer the basic Y-DNA12 test for $49 beginning April 1, 2013. The current sale
of Y12 at $39 will end at 11:59PM CST, March 31,2013. We are also working on
bringing down the price of the basic mtDNA test as well; we hope to have that
accomplished during the first half of this year.”
“We hope that you can encourage family and friends
who saw the price as a barrier to now come on board. It is our goal to ensure
every single person is able to have the "DNA experience," at least at
the basic level.”
Although
I usually recommend that men wanting to find their surname ancestry take a 37-marker
Y-DNA test, for those who haven’t taken the test because of cost, this is a
good opportunity. Order the test
before the end of this month and save the most. Especially if you are descended from a Graves or Greaves
family that has not had anyone take a Y-DNA test, it is really important that
at least one male descendant with the Graves/Greaves surname take the test.
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AUTOSOMAL DNA
RAW DATA NOW AVAILABLE ON ANCESTRY
The
first part of the major event from Ancestry that many of us have been awaiting
for so long has finally arrived!
Ancestry is now allowing those who have done the autosomal DNA test with
them to download their raw data files.
See the instructions in the next article for exactly how to do it. It will be a while before Ancestry adds
capability to see matching areas on chromosomes (if they do) as 23andMe and
FTDNA presently do, and it will also be a while before GEDmatch adds the
capability to upload raw data from Ancestry (to allow comparison.
GENERAL COMMENTS ABOUT
COMPARISONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT DNA TESTING COMPANIES
I
have previously commented on various aspects of DNA offerings from FTDNA,
23andMe, and Ancestry. There are
shortcomings with all the offerings now, but improvements are constantly being
made.
Regarding
price, both 23andMe and Ancestry are
selling their autosomal test for $99.
FTDNA’s standard price is much higher at $289. The best price deal, if you want to maximize your matches,
is to get the $99 test at 23andMe, and then transfer those results to FTDNA for
another $89. However, FTDNA
provides projects to provide help and facilitate matching, and they also
provide by far the most complete collection of DNA tests. 23andMe also provides health and trait
information, which neither of the other companies provide. Ancestry has a huge traditional
collection of family trees, which is a big advantage to matching, but those
contain many errors and are not yet tied in well with DNA data.
If
you want health data, testing at
23andMe is your only option. FTDNA
is by for the best for overall DNA
testing. For deep ancestry, 23andMe and the GENO2.0
test from the National Geographic Society (offered by them but tested by FTDNA)
are the best. For the number of matches, the consensus so far
seems to be Ancestry, because of its large traditional database.
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PLEASE SIGN
ONLINE PETITION TO ANCESTRY.COM
As
announced in the preceding article, Ancestry is now allowing those who have
done the autosomal DNA test with them to download their raw data files. However, they have also said that they
do not intend to provide a chromosome browser that would allow customers to see
which segments of DNA you share with those who match you. A chromosome browser that would provide
this information is absolutely essential.
In response to this situation, Shannon Christmas has started an online
petition to urge ancestry to add this capability. Please sign this petition by going to this
website.
The
petition states: “Without a chromosome browser and access to shared DNA segment
data, customers of Ancestry.com's autosomal DNA genealogy product, AncestryDNA,
cannot positively identify the ancestors responsible for the DNA shared with
each genetic relative. Without access to and analytic tools for shared DNA
segment data, AncestryDNA customers routinely draw inaccurate conclusions about
their pedigrees and how they relate to each of their reported DNA matches. In
the absence of matching segment data, AncestryDNA's Shared Ancestor Hints, a
feature that pinpoints a set of common ancestors in each match's family tree,
can mislead and has misled countless Ancestry customers seeking to solve
genealogical problems with genetic testing. Continuing to sell AncestryDNA
without a chromosome browser and shared segment data, essential features of any
autosomal DNA genealogy product, minimizes the product's accuracy, utility, and
integrity as a resource for genealogists and does a disservice to a community
of customers who have supported Ancestry.com for all of its 17 years.”
===============================================
UPLOAD YOUR
AUTOSOMAL DNA RESULTS TO GEDMATCH
If
you have taken an autosomal DNA test from Family Tree DNA (Family Finder) or
from 23andMe (Relative Finder) and I know your Graves/Greaves ancestry, your
ancestral line and DNA matches have been added to the appropriate chart on the
Autosomal DNA page of the GFA website.
However, most people descended from a common Graves/Greaves ancestor
don’t share enough DNA to be considered a match, even though they may share on
a sizeable DNA segment inherited from their common ancestor. Presently, the best way to get around
that problem is to download your autosomal test results and then upload them
(along with a GEDCOM) to GEDmatch. Once on that site, we will be able to
do many things that cannot be done on any other site, including searching for
all your matches on specific segments of DNA that we think may be inherited
from your Graves/Greaves ancestor (or any other ancestor that you may be
interested in).
Having
your test results on GEDmatch will also provide you with potential matches from
others who aren’t on FTDNA, 23andMe, or the website of whatever other company
you were tested by. Presently the
only other company of any significance is Ancestry, which has just announced
the ability to down load autosomal DNA raw data.
To download autosomal DNA results from Family Tree DNA:
Sign on to your personal
page, click on the Family Finder tab and then on “Download Raw Data.” Then just follow instructions.
To download autosomal DNA
results from 23andMe:
Sign into your account, click
on Account at the top of the page, and then click on “Browse Raw Data” in the
drop-down menu. On the download
page, select the option to download all DNA, and click the “Download Data”
button.
To download autosomal DNA results from Ancestry:
Go to Ancestry and sign in
if you need to. Then click on the
DNA tab at the top of the page.
Click on “Manage Text Settings” (next to the orange View Results
button). Click on “Get Started” in
the “Download your raw DNA data” section.
Then just follow the instructions.
Before downloading your data, it is necessary to re-enter your
password. Then you are sent an
email to confirm the download.
After that, the data is downloaded as a zip file and then needs to be
unzipped before you can look at it or upload it to GEDmatch.
With downloads from all
these companies, save the file and do not open it as the act of opening it
sometimes causes corruption and you will have a hard time uploading the file.
If the upload to GEDmatch fails, download a new copy and start
over. If you have an older copy of the download on your computer, it’s
always a good idea to use a fresh copy to incorporate any changes made by the
vendor since your last file download.
To upload a GEDCOM and
autosomal DNA results to GEDmatch:
Go
to GEDmatch. Scroll down to the section to “Upload Your Data Files.” Select the upload option you want to
perform, and click on the link.
You should upload your raw data files and your GEDCOM file. (If you don’t have a GEDCOM file but
you do have your family tree in a genealogy program, you can create one with
that program.) You should be sure
to upload your GEDCOM with complete information that includes all known
descendants of ancestors, not just your direct ancestors. Unless you upload your complete file,
you may inadvertently omit the individual who links you to another person’s
genealogy. After you click on the
desired link for the upload, just follow the instructions.
You
can also upload Family Finder match results from FTDNA and the Ancestry Finder
file from 23andMe if you want to be able to run the triangulation utility on
GEDmatch.
After
you have uploaded results to GEDmatch, be sure to let me know the ID numbers
for your results and your GEDCOM, so that I can help you search.
You
cannot yet upload Ancestry data to GEDmatch, but that capability will be added
sometime in the future.
If
you don’t want to go through the hassle of doing these downloads and uploads
yourself, let me know and I can do it for you (although I would rather have you
do it).
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AUTOSOMAL DNA
PROJECT FOR DESCENDANTS OF CAPT. THOMAS GRAVES OF VA (GEN. 169)
A
sister website to GEDmatch discussed in the preceding article is
Ancestor-Projects. It is a place
where autosomal DNA projects can be established to use the information on
GEDmatch to learn more about related groups of people. One project there is for those
descended from Capt. Thomas Graves of VA (genealogy 169). That project was established by Shannon
Christmas. He is a descendant of
Capt. Thomas Graves through Mary Graves (daughter of Henry White Graves) and
John Christmas.
Shannon’s recent post on our Facebook
page said: “Gen 169 descendants who have tested with Family Tree DNA (Family
Finder) or 23andMe: Please join the Captain Thomas Graves of Jamestown Autosomal
DNA Project by uploading your Family Tree DNA (Family Finder) or 23andMe
raw data and GEDCOMs to GEDmatch,
registering on Ancestor-Projects,
and emailing me (shannon [dot] s [dot] christmas [at] gmail [dot] com) to add
you to the project - in that order. By participating, you will help us isolate
and identify autosomal DNA segments inherited from Captain Thomas Graves and
his descendants. I encourage you
to add the data for the eldest living direct line descendants of Captain Thomas
Graves to the project. Feel free to ask questions. I look forward to hearing from
you.”
I
encourage everyone descended from genealogy 169 who has taken an autosomal DNA
test to follow the instructions in this article and the preceding one. Perhaps we will be able to use this
project as a model for similar projects for other Graves/Greaves families.
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A PERSONAL
EVALUATION OF DEEP ANCESTRY DNA RESULTS
In
the last issue of this bulletin, I had an article about deep ancestry results
from DNA testing. This was mainly
about a series of articles written by Roberta Estes on her blog,
DNAeXplained. Because of some
questions I have received since then, I took a closer look at my own results
from several different companies, and the following discussion is about my
observations.
My
conclusions are that the 23andMe analysis is the most complete and most
meaningful for me, since it agrees reasonably well with the ancestry I had
previously found. The Ancestry
results were misleading because of the high percentage of Scandinavian, and the
FTDNA results weren’t detailed enough.
The reason the results differ is that they are dependent on the period
in time and the reference populations used. All of the companies will be refining their results over
time.
Ancestry Composition from
23andMe
This
ancestral breakdown was the most complete. They explain that their analysis tells you what percent of
your DNA comes from each of 22 populations worldwide. The results reflect where your ancestors lived 500 years
ago. They give you a choice of 3
estimates of ancestral origin, and the following numbers are from the
speculative estimate.
European,
99%
Northern European, 99.5%
(British and Irish, 73.3%, French and German, 3.2%, Scandinavian, 2.9%,
Nonspecific Northern European, 19.6%, Ashkenazi, 0.5%)
Southern
and Eastern European, 0%
Nonspecific
European, 0.3%
Sub-Saharan
African, <0.1%
Unassigned,
0.1%
AncestryDNA from
Ancestry.com
They
explain that the genetic ethnicity reveals where your ancestors lived hundreds,
perhaps even thousands, of years ago.
They gave:
Scandinavian,
46% (Norway, Sweden, Denmark)
British
Isles, 27% (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales)
Central
Europe, 25% (Austria, France, Germany, etc.)
Uncertain,
2%
Geno 2.0 test from the
National Geographic Society
This
gave the following percentages of ancestral components. They explain that these percentages
don’t necessarily mean that I belong to these groups or am directly from these
regions. This is a mixture of both
recent (past 6 generations) and ancient patterns established over thousands of
years.
Northern
European, 44% (UK, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Germany)
Mediterranean,
37% (southern Europe and the Levant, especially Sardinia, Italy, Greece,
Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia)
Southwest
Asian, 18% (India and neighboring populations)
They
compared my genetic ancestry to that of the two closest modern day populations:
|
British |
German |
Me |
Northern
European |
49% |
46% |
44% |
Mediterranean |
33% |
36% |
37% |
Southwest
Asian |
17% |
17% |
18% |
They
also gave my ancestry as 2.6% Neanderthal and 1.5% Denisovan (two other species
of hominids). These components are
still somewhat experimental and not without controversy.
Population Finder from
Family Tree DNA
They
explain that this tool is in Beta testing and the results will change. They gave the following percentages:
Western
Europe, 93.04% +/- 8.53% (French, Orcadian, Basque, Spanish)
Europe
(other), 6.96% +/- 8.53% (Tuscan, Finnish, Romanian, Sardinian)
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TEACH YOUR
CHILDREN AND RELATIVES ABOUT THEIR FAMILY HISTORY
The
March 20, 2013 issue of The Weekly
Genealogist, vol. 16, no. 12, an online newsletter published by the New
England Historic Genealogical in Boston, MA, had an interesting brief article
about one of the benefits of teaching children about their family history. (All back issues of The Weekly Genealogist can be found on their website.) Dick Eastman also mentioned this
article in Eastman’s Online Genealogy
Newsletter of March 25.
This
article refers to a recent story in the New York Times, and is called The Stories That Bind
Us. The story in the Times starts out talking about tensions
and problems within families (things all families have), and then discusses the
results of some studies of how to effectively deal with this. At least one study found: "The
more children knew about their family's history, the stronger their sense of
control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more
successfully they believed their families functioned." This article was adapted from Bruce
Feiler’s recently published book, “The Secrets of Happy Families: How to
Improve Your Morning, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smart, Go Out and Play, and
Much More.”
The conclusions noted above are probably true to a
lesser extent for many of the adults in families. Have you ever despaired that no one else in your family has
any interest in genealogy? You can
probably understand why they might not be interested in the sometimes-tedious
task of searching through records online, on microfilm, or on dusty shelves of
libraries and archives.
But how about those pictures of ancestors, stories about how they
lived and were part of historical times, and some of their interesting
experiences? If you try to share
small and interesting pieces periodically over a period of time (perhaps at
family gatherings or via email), and stay away from things they might consider
boring, some of them might begin to gain an appreciation of their ancestral
heritage. If you give it a try (or
have already done some of this), let me know your experiences and successes.
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MORE THAN YOU
EVER WANTED TO KNOW
Many
of those from around the world who share information on the online DNA
discussion lists are very highly educated and knowledgeable people. An example of some of the very
interesting published articles that are shared is a recent
one on Plos One. This is
titled “A Genome-Wide analysis of Populations from European Russia Reveals a
New Pole of Genetic Diversity in Northern Europe.” There are many other articles like this being
published. I certainly don’t
expect many of you to be interested in this or similar articles, but for a
handful of you who might be, the ISOGG list and a couple of others are a good
place to find out about this kind of research.
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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
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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.