Graves Family Bulletin, Vol. 15, No. 8

GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN

Vol. 15, No. 8, Aug. 3, 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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Click on these links to visit the GFA web site and our Facebook page.

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CONTENTS

** General Comments

** Getting Started in Genealogy

** Our GFA Facebook Group

** Understanding Your DNA Test Results

** Consider Transferring Your Autosomal DNA Test Results to Family Tree DNA

** Strategies for Finding Immigrant Origins

** New Book About Graves Trucking Line

** Death of Writer John Alexander Graves of Glen Rose, Texas

** Graves Family Books Still Available From Graves Family Association, and Future Books

** Who Do You Think You Are?

** To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things

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GENERAL COMMENTS

This issue of the Bulletin contains three articles about events that happened in the month of July, including a series on getting started in genealogy, a series on understanding your DNA test results, and the new season of the American version of “Who Do You Think You Are?” However, even though the live events are over, they are still available via podcast or replay.

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GETTING STARTED IN GENEALOGY

The June 26 issue of The Weekly Genealogist, the online newsletter of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, announced a 3-part course on how to get started in genealogy on 3 Wednesdays, July 17, 24, and 31, 6-8 p.m., in Boston.

The announcement states: “There are plenty of websites, libraries, and printed sources out there, but access to all that information can leave a beginner feeling overwhelmed. Let an NEHGS expert help you navigate the first steps in tracing your family history. Genealogist Rhonda R. McClure will share her knowledge and helpful strategies for beginning your family history journey in this three-part course.”

Tuition is $30 for the full course (all 3 sessions). To register, call 617-226-1226 or register online. If you are interested but aren’t in the Boston area, watch the online seminar.

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OUR GFA FACEBOOK GROUP

Most of you are aware that the Graves Family Association has a Facebook group. You can go to it by clicking here. As we approach 600 members of this group, there seems to be a need for finding who else in the group is related to each member and where they live. To meet that need, an Excel file has been created and placed on the page to provide the name of each member, their U.S. state or country of residence, the genealogy group that person is part of, and some other miscellaneous information. Anyone in our Facebook group can go to our page, click on Files, and download the member file. There are actually two versions of the file, one sorted by name and the second sorted by genealogy number. Once you download either version, you can sort it any way you want.

A copy of the two versions of the file are also on the GFA website as html pages rather than as Excel files (so they can only be viewed there, not sorted). You can see these pages by going to the GFA website and clicking the GFA Facebook Group link on the GFA/Forums drop-down tab on the top right of every page. I have put some description of each of the table columns on that page also.

I hope to eventually have a more complex and interactive feature like this in the membership section of the GFA website (if the membership section ever becomes reality), which would include everyone on my contact list, not just our Facebook group members.

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UNDERSTANDING YOUR DNA TEST RESULTS

Family Tree DNA posted the following notice:

Looking for more help understanding your Y-DNA, mtDNA or Family Finder results?

This month's 3-part Genetic Genealogy Demystified webinar series by Relative Roots begins this week on Tuesday, July 9. All webinars are presented live at 1pm Eastern (5pm GMT). If you cannot attend live, you can register to view the recording at your convenience.

Tues, July 9: Part 1, Y-DNA

Tues, July 16: Part 2, mtDNA

Tues, July 23: Part 3, Family Finder (autosomal DNA)

All registered webinar attendees will receive a limited-time coupon code providing a small discount on select Family Tree DNA tests and upgrades! The coupon can't be used in conjunction with sale prices, but it can be used on Y-DNA and mtDNA upgrades since those are not on sale this month.

Click this link to visit the Relative Roots website for more details and to register. Even though this notice is a bit late and the live webinars are completed, you can still register and see all three as recordings.

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CONSIDER TRANSFERRING YOUR AUTOSOMAL DNA TEST RESULTS TO FAMILY TREE DNA

On June 26, Family Tree DNA announced “Autosomal Transfer Update: All new autosomal transfers with raw data files uploaded prior to Monday 6/24 have been processed and results are now posted in your myFTDNA accounts. This also means that many of the customers already in our Family Finder database will see new matches today. Enjoy!

Haven't transferred your autosomal raw data to Family Tree DNA yet? Visit our autosomal transfer page to learn about the benefits of transferring into our Family Finder database!”

To transfer your 23andMe© or AncestryDNA™ autosomal results to Family Tree DNA, go to their autosomal data transfer page. This involves downloading your raw autosomal DNA test results from 23andMe or Ancestry, ordering the FTDNA transfer product ($69), and uploading the autosomal data to FTDNA.

The benefit of this transfer is matching in Family Tree DNA’s Family Finder database without the need for additional testing.

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STRATEGIES FOR FINDING IMMIGRANT ORIGINS

In an article on Mocavo, Michael J. Leclerc wrote on June 12, 2013, about five strategies for finding immigrant origins. Passenger lists and naturalization records are often not available. His suggestions for other records to search are:

· Church records

· Death notices and obituaries

· Grave markers

· Organizational records

· Compiled genealogies

You can search for other articles on Michael Leclerc’s blog by clicking on the “Search Blog” link at the top of his blog page.

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NEW BOOK ABOUT GRAVES TRUCKING LINE

Sue Graves Smith wrote about a new book for her part of the Graves family in Kansas. Her Graves family is genealogy 152 (Thomas Graves of Lunenburg Co. & Mecklenburg Co., VA). On the autosomal DNA chart for genealogy 28, I speculate that the ancestry is that gen. 152 is descended from gen. 56, which is descended from gen. 220, which is descended from gen. 28. On the detailed summary chart for genealogy 228 (Greaves Family of Beeley, Derbyshire, England), I further speculate that gen. 28 is descended from gen. 228.

Sue wrote: “Our branch of the Graves family came from Mecklenburg County, Virginia through Tennessee to Webster County, Missouri. By the early 1900s my grandfather William Preston Graves I and most of his siblings had re-settled in and around Saline County, Kansas. In the 1930s my grandparents lost their farm through foreclosure. They moved into Salina and started over. William Preston Graves died in 1939 and his four sons carried on a fledging business in trucking. It grew and prospered. His namesake (grandson) William Preston Graves II was elected governor of Kansas in 1994 and 1998. The book has lots of genealogy and great pictures!”

The book is: The Graves Truck Line Story

Author is Judy Magnuson Lilly

ISBN 978-0-9859130-0-7

Publisher: Sandglass Publishing

Printed by Mennonite Press, Inc. Newton, Kansas

Cover price is $30, but I will charge family members $25.

184 pages

Contact Sue Graves Smith for details on how to order.

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DEATH OF WRITER JOHN ALEXANDER GRAVES OF GLEN ROSE, TEXAS

John Alexander Graves, well-known Texas author, died on July 31. The following obituary is from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

“John Graves, the dean of Texas letters, died shortly after midnight Wednesday at his home in Glen Rose, Texas. He was 92.

Graves, author of "Goodbye to a River" and other books about Texas, had been in ill health recently, said a close family friend. He would have been 93 on Aug. 6.

Graves grew up in Fort Worth and at his grandfather's ranch in Cuero. He studied literature at Rice and as a graduate student at Columbia University.

"Goodbye to a River," which Graves called the "river book," was published in 1960. It depicts his trip on the Brazos River in a canoe with his dog.

They paddled 175 serpentine river miles in three weeks through chilling rain, bitter blue northers, and warm, radiant, yellow-winter afternoons.

Graves scribbled in small notebooks all the while, seeing, remembering, feeling, and when the trip was done, the writer possessed much more material than could ever be squeezed into the magazine article he subsequently wrote.”

Click here to see a more complete obituary in the Dallas Morning News. He is also profiled on the Graves Family Association page of famous family members (click on Famous Family Members on the History/News drop-down tab at the top of the page, and then click on his name).

In addition, Russ McAfee sent a link to a video about John Graves. Russ is descended from genealogy 270 (John Graves/Greaves of Northamptonshire, England and VA), and is also a writer. Russ’s comment about John Graves is: “The book he will always be remembered for was "Goodbye to a River." It was to non-fiction about Texas what McMurtry's "Leaving Cheyenne," "Horsemen Pass By," and "The Last Picture Show" were to fiction about the state. They both got it right.”

A reference to another article in the New York Times was sent by Helen Graves, one of the two daughters of John Graves.

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GRAVES FAMILY BOOKS STILL AVAILABLE FROM GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION, AND FUTURE BOOKS

Occasionally I get asked about the Graves Family Association books that have been published. There have been 7 books about various Graves families, published from 1980 through 2002. You can see a description, prices, and ordering instructions on the GFA website by moving your cursor to the Products drop-down tab at the top of each page, and clicking on the Books link. The books (listed below) are all still available, although a couple are in very short supply.

· Robert Graves of Anson Co., NC and Chesterfield Co., SC (descendant of genealogy 270) -- very few left

· Samuel Graves of Lynn, MA (genealogy 83)

· Thomas Graves of Hartford, CT and Hatfield, MA (genealogy 168) – very few left

· Graves Families of the World (many genealogies)

· Rear Admiral Thomas Graves of Charlestown, MA (genealogy 28) – very few left

· Deacon George Graves of Hartford, CT (genealogy 65)

· John Graves of Concord, MA (genealogy 166)

FUTURE BOOKS

I plan to publish other books for various Graves/Greaves families in the future. These will probably be e-books, print-on-demand books, or both. There are several reasons for the delay in publishing additional books, including the expense, my time, and the appropriate format and content. The major issue regarding content is whether the books should include all descendants. Traditionally, genealogy books have always included all descendants both living and dead. This is true of the books I have already published. If living descendants aren’t included (as with the genealogies on the GFA website), a large percentage of most genealogies will not be available to the readers

SHOULD LIVING DESCENDANTS BE IN FUTURE BOOKS?

Would you buy a book about your family that doesn’t include you and your living family members? What do you want me to do about this issue? Should I omit all living people (not always known who is still living), all generations containing living people, everyone born in the last 100 years, or what? Please let me know what you think. My hope is that we can eventually come to a consensus decision, since it would be a tragedy for me not to share all the information I have gathered over many years.

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WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

The U.S. version of the British TV show, “Who Do You Think You Are?” started July 23 with Kelly Clarkson. This season’s episodes will be on The Learning Channel on Tuesdays at 9 PM Eastern (8 PM Central), and are aimed at a younger audience. There will be 8 celebrities featured this season.

Any episodes that you miss can be watched online.

Non-celebrities will be featured in a similar show, “Genealogy Roadshow”, on Public Television starting in September.

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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.