GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN
Vol. 16, No. 2, Feb. 27,
2014
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
© 2014 by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves. All rights reserved.
Information
on how to be removed from the subscription list is at the end of this
bulletin. If you received this
bulletin directly, then you are already subscribed. If you received it from a friend and want to subscribe, send
an email message with your full name to ken.graves@gravesfa.org.
Click
on these links to visit the GFA website
and our Facebook page.
===============================================================
CONTENTS
**
General Comments
**
First Big-Y Test Results From FTDNA To Be Posted By Feb. 28
**
Using DNA Testing to Find Genealogical Relationships
** Post
Your Gedcom at Family Tree DNA
**
New Book on Genetic Genealogy
**
23andMe in the News in 2013 and Now
**
Follow-up to Planning Your Online Legacy
**
American Civil War: Journey Through Hallowed Ground Project
**
More on African American Ancestry
**
August Genetic Genealogy Conference in Washington, DC
**
Why Is There More Or Less Interest in Various Genealogies?
**
Viewing TV Programs from Another Country
**
To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
===============================================================
GENERAL
COMMENTS
The
most important announcement in this issue of the bulletin is probably the one
about the first set of results from the new Big Y test from Family Tree
DNA. This is expected to provide a
new tool for finding ancestry and connections between parts of related
families. So far only 8 men with
the Graves or Greaves surname have taken the Big Y test. We need many more to do so.
There
has also been a lot of interest and activity on our Graves Family Association
Facebook page. It is rapidly
approaching 1,000 members, with no indication of slowing growth. Unfortunately, many of the newer members
of the page donÕt yet realize the importance of sharing enough information
about their Graves/Greaves ancestry and their contact information to maximize
the help they can get from me and others.
If you are a member of our Facebook group, please encourage others to
provide as much information as possible.
===============================================================
FIRST BIG Y
TEST RESULTS FROM FTDNA TO BE POSTED BY FEB. 28
Family
Tree DNA has just made an important announcement for DNA testing. The first set of Big Y test results
will be posted by Friday, Feb. 28.
More information can be seen here. Some of the information from that page
is below. In addition, Roberta
Estes just blogged
today about what to expect from the Big Y test, and that the first results
are being sent today (Feb. 27).
Big
Y and future DNA tests like it are important because they provide an additional
way to trace male surname ancestry and connect related families. The only male lineage test previously
available is the one that tests for STRs (like the Y-DNA37 test) that mutate
fairly frequently, whereas the Big Y test looks for SNPs that are unique to a
particular ancestral line and are believed to occur only once. See the next article for a little more
discussion of this.
In
addition, on Feb. 28, Family Tree DNA will be hosting a free webinar by Elise
Friedman called ÒGetting to Know Big Y Results.Ó This webinar will provide an overview of the Big Y product, as well
as demonstrate and explain the Big Y results page in myFTDNA. The time will be 12:00 PM-1:30 PM,
Central Standard Time. To
register, click here. The webinar will be recorded, so if you
cannot attend live, you'll be able to view the recording instead. Recordings are typically available
within 24 hours of the live presentation. You can always see a list of
scheduled webinars on the Family Tree DNA webinar page.
WHAT IS THE BIG Y TEST?
The
BIG Y product is a direct paternal lineage test. We have designed it to explore
deep ancestral links on our common paternal tree. It tests both thousands of
known branch markers and millions of places where there may be new branch
markers. We intend it for expert users with an interest in advancing science. It may also be of great interest to
genealogy researchers of a specific lineage. It is not however a test for
matching you to one or more men with the same surname in the way of our Y-DNA37
and other tests.
WeÕll
release the first set of BIG Y results by Feb 28th. We are processing samples
in first come first serve order. If a sample doesnÕt pass quality control, we
will place it in the next set of results to be processed as long as we have
enough DNA sample. If we require an additional sample, we will send a new test
kit and place the new sample in the first set to be processed when it is
returned. We expect that all samples ordered in December will be delivered by
March 28th. Thereafter we expect an 8 to 10 week turn around time from date of
sample receipt.
Sequencing
is performed at our state-of-the-art genomics lab and the data is analyzed by
our genome informatics team.
Your
positive results from the BIG Y test will be included on your Haplotree page as
of your haplogroup determination. They will also be shown as a results table on
a BIG Y page that may be downloaded to any spreadsheet program.
Both
BIG Y and Geno 2.0 test for thousands of paternal lineage branch markers (SNPs).
Unlike Geno 2.0 and related technologies though, BIG Y is able to detect new
branch markers that are unique to your paternal lineage, surname, or even you.
Geno
2.0 is microarray chip based and programmed for specific SNPs. BIG Y is a
next-generation sequence-based test.
Yes,
in addition to a list of variants, we will illustrate how your results relate
to your branch on the human paternal tree.
===============================================================
USING DNA
TESTING TO FIND GENEALOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS
There are several
ways that we can use DNA test results to figure out how people and various
parts of your ancestral lineage are connected.
(1) One is using a
Y-DNA test (such as the Y-DNA37 test), which measures STRs (single tandem
repeats). With this you look at the values of particular markers in a Y-DNA
test that are associated with particular lines. Although STRs can mutate,
causing them to not be quite as reliable as we would prefer, they are generally
very helpful. When a test result
is inconclusive, sometimes getting everyone in the comparison group to upgrade
their test to more markers (in many cases, perhaps to the maximum of 111), a
more definitive result will be found because of more markers defining a
lineage. For determining
Graves/Greaves ancestry, only men with an unbroken male ancestry back to a
Graves/Greaves ancestor can provide the needed information.
(2) A second test
has just recently become available. It is testing for SNPs (single nucleotide
polymorphisms). These are mutations that generally only occur once throughout
history, and were previously thought to occur so infrequently that they would
only be useful for ancient lineage. With the advent of the Big Y test from Family
Tree DNA (discussed in the preceding article) and whole genome testing, we are
finding SNPs within genealogical time, and it is possible that Big Y might find
helpful markers for your part of the family. This test also needs to be taken by a male with an unbroken
male ancestral line back to a Graves/Greaves ancestor.
(3) Autosomal
testing with Family Finder and other, similar tests can show relationships,
although it is less precise than SNP or Y-DNA testing because of the
unpredictable inheritance of DNA segments. An advantage of this test is that it can be taken by anyone
and may still be helpful in determining Graves/Greaves ancestry. Although the analytical tools on Family
Tree DNA and the websites of other testing companies may not show Graves/Greaves
back very many generations, uploading the raw data to GEDmatch.com and using
the analytical tools there may show matches and ancestral DNA much farther
back.
(4) Mitochondrial
DNA testing and X-chromosome testing can also be used for tracing ancestry, but
are usually not as helpful as the other methods mentioned above.
There are charts
on the Graves Family Association website showing Y-DNA (STR) relationships
(accessible from the Charts page),
and others based on autosomal test results (on the Autosomal DNA page). I plan to also have charts showing SNP
results (including from Big Y), if that turns out to be as helpful as
expected. If anyone sees
information that should be added to the charts, please let me know so that I
can update them appropriately.
===============================================================
POST YOUR
GEDCOM AT FAMILY TREE DNA
A
few months ago Family Tree DNA offered a $10 coupon to any tester who had not
uploaded their GEDCOM. This coupon
is good for any test over $49 and there is no expiration date. It is very important that everyone who
is part of the Graves/Greaves DNA project be sure they have a Gedcom and a list
of ancestral surnames entered, and that they encourage others to do the same.
THE EXPERIENCE AND COMMENTS
OF ANOTHER PROJECT ADMINISTRATOR
Another
DNA project manager on the ISOGG list (Emily Aulicino) wrote that she recently
went through all her pages of autosomal (Family Finder) matches to see who had
a GEDCOM. She found 152 Gedcoms
uploaded out of 652 matches, and at least one person with themselves and their
parents uploaded, but nothing more.
She found another person with 3-4 generations, but with only names, no
dates or places. Not a great
showing given that many of these people are genealogists.
She went through those 152 Gedcoms and found common
ancestors for five of her matches.
Although not a huge number, itÕs five more than what she had. Her next step is to discuss who matches
them where they match her as well as look at each of their downloaded DNA
segments to determine if others may be connected on the same line.
As more people upload their Gedcoms more
common ancestors will be found. However, those Gedcoms must be as detailed as possible for
the best results. As genealogists,
it does little good to call our work done; we must continue filling in the
gaps. Although more and more
records are becoming available on the Internet, a good genealogist knows that
is not the only resource as most records are still found in the courthouses and
various other depositories.
MY MATCHES
Of
my 705 Family Finder matches, only 187 had Gedcoms. Some of those without Gedcoms had lists of ancestral
surnames, but listing surnames is not nearly specific enough. Of the 27 of those with known
Graves/Greaves ancestry, 18 had Gedcoms.
Of my 705 Family Finder matches, about 40% did not even have a list of
ancestral surnames, and others had a very incomplete list, meaning that there
is no way I can even search for a surname in common.
GEDCOMS FOR THOSE IN THE
GRAVES/GREAVES PROJECT
There
are 594 members of the Graves/Greaves DNA project on Family Tree DNA. Of those, 193 have taken the Family
Finder test, and 106 have Gedcoms uploaded. That leaves 87 (45%) that are missing them. If you have not yet uploaded a Gedcom
and a surname list, I strongly urge you to do so and to urge others to do the
same.
===============================================================
NEW BOOK ON
GENETIC GENEALOGY
A
new book called Genetic Genealogy: The
Basics and Beyond has just been published. Written by Emily Aulicino, a genetic genealogist, this book
will serve as a basic reference guide to understanding genetic genealogy and
getting the most from your DNA testing experience. A good summary can be seen in a Jan. 24 blog
article from Roberta Estes, and EmilyÕs announcement can be read here.
===============================================================
23ANDME IN THE
NEWS IN 2013 AND NOW
23andMe, the DNA testing company, sent a
review of their year on Feb. 1, 2014.
You can see it here. The page lists the highlight for each
month of 2013 for 23andMe or for genetic research. The significant events for 23andMe included participating in
allergy studies and publishing the genetics behind stretch marks, both health
related, but nothing specifically for genetic genealogy. You can see a little more about a
couple of the listed items on their media
center page.
===============================================================
FOLLOW-UP TO
PLANNING YOUR ONLINE LEGACY
In
the January issue of this bulletin, there was an article on this subject. On this same subject, Roberta Estes
published an article on Jan. 28, 2014, titled ÒWhat If You Die?Ó on her blog, DNAeXplained. In the article she talks about the
death of a friend and genealogy researcher, and the lack of adequate
preparation for this event. The
questions and issues that Roberta and the other researchers in the group are
struggling with include finding all the information (especially electronic and
online information) that was in the care of this person, and finding passwords
and other access information.
Some
of the actions that can be taken by all of us to help prevent similar problems
are:
á
Make a list of all your genealogical and DNA data and accounts (and the
information needed to access that data), and share this with at least one other
person.
á
Put someone elseÕs email address on DNA testing accounts as an
alternate.
á
Complete the beneficiary form at Family Tree DNA if you have an account
there.
á
Consider giving permission for the project administrator at Family Tree
DNA to complete the beneficiary form and do other tasks that might be needed in
the future.
===============================================================
AMERICAN CIVIL
WAR: JOURNEY THROUGH HALLOWED GROUND PROJECT
The
American Civil War is an event that continues to capture the attention of many
and haunt our memory. The older
generation still remembers the annual reunions of the GAR and CSA veterans,
until there was none left. An
article in the Ancestry.com blog of Jan. 27, 2014, was titled ÒJourney
Through Hallowed Ground and the Living Legacy Project.Ó According to this article,
approximately 620,000 men lost their lives during this war. An article in Wikipedia
states that it was Òthe deadliest war in American history, resulting in the
deaths of an estimated 750,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian
casualties. Historian John Huddleston estimates the death toll at ten percent
of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and 30 percent of all Southern
white males aged 18–40.Ó
More than 400,000 others were estimated as having been wounded. (The Wikipedia article and numbers are
the result of a study discussed in a 2012
article in the New York Times.
According
to this blog article: ÒMemorializing each of those who were lost is an enormous
task, and itÕs one that Journey
Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG) has undertaken. JTHG seeks to raise
awareness of the history and heritage in the 180-mile corridor running from
Gettysburg to Monticello. Part of this program is the Living
Legacy Project, which will plant one tree along the corridor for each of
the 620,000 who fell during the war. Those 620,000 trees will create the
worldÕs longest landscaped alley. Ancestry and Fold3
are pleased to be partnering with Journey Through Hallowed Ground to create
this living tribute.Ó ÒJTHG,
Ancestry and Fold3 are working with teachers to help them incorporate
researching the lives of the Civil War fallen into their curriculum.Ó
If
you canÕt find an individual in the 1870 U.S. census, this is one of the major
reasons why.
===============================================================
MORE ON
AFRICAN AMERICAN ANCESTRY
VIDEOS AVAILABLE OF THE 2013
AFRICAN DIASPORA CONFERENCE
A
conference called ÒThe African Diaspora: Integrating Culture, Genomics and
HistoryÓ was held at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, DC,
in September. 2013. The videos
from that conference are now available free by clicking here. Roberta Estes called this to our attention in an
article on her blog, DNAeXplained.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
February
is Black History
Month. In recognition of that,
Fold3 is offering free access to all publications in its Black History Collection through
the end of February.
SOME TIPS FROM ANCESTRY.COM
ON RESEARCHING AFRICAN AMERICAN ANCESTORS
An
article of Feb. 13, 2014 in an Ancestry.com blog may be of some help. You can see it here.
HELPFUL VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE
YouTube
has an amazing variety of interesting and helpful videos. Clicking on this
link for a 30-minute video on African American Family History Research will
also take you to a list of many other videos, mostly from Ancestry.com.
===============================================================
AUGUST GENETIC
GENEALOGY CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON, DC
The Institute for
Genetic Genealogy is pleased to announce the 2014 International Genetic
Genealogy Conference, which will be held August 15-17 in Washington, DC at the
National 4-H Youth Conference Center. An outstanding group of genetic
genealogists and population geneticists have agreed to speak at this
conference. Representatives from all of the major genetic genealogy
companies have agreed to give presentations. Dr. Spencer Wells, who heads
the National Geographic Genographic Project, will be the keynote speaker.
The main portion
of the conference will be held on August 16 and 17. Family Tree DNA will
hold a workshop in the evening on August 15. Other genetic genealogy
companies possibly will also be holding workshops on August 15 during the
afternoon. Click here for details about the conference and to
register for it. The registration fee for the conference will be
$85. Meals and lodging will be available at the conference center but
must be purchased at least one month in advance. For a preliminary
conference schedule, click here. Descriptions of the presentations and
biographical background about the speakers are here. A PDF version of the flyer about the conference is here.
A complete list
of the speakers and their presentations is as follows:
1. Ancestry.com
representative - Ancestry.com DNA products
2. Jim Bartlett - Getting the Most of Your Autosomal
DNA Matches and Triangulation , an Essential Tool to Sort out Your Matches and
Map Your DNA
3. Terry Barton - Surname Project Administration
4. Dr. Blaine Bettinger - Using Free Third-party Tools
to Analyze Your Autosomal DNA
5. Angie Bush - DNA Case Studies
6. Rebekah Canada - Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup H
7. Shannon Christmas - Identity by Descent: Using
DNA to Extend the African-American Pedigree
8. Karin Corbeil, Diane Harman-Hoog, and Rob Warthen
- Not Just for Adoptees – Methods and Tools for Working with Autosomal
DNA from the Team at DNAGedcom.com
9. Family Tree DNA representative - FTDNA Products
10. Dr. Maurice Gleeson - An Irish Approach to
Autosomal DNA Matches
11. Katherine Hope-Borges - ISOGG
12. Bill Hurst - Mitochondrial DNA Focusing on
Haplogroup K
13. Dr. Tim Janzen - Using Chromosome Mapping to Help
Trace Your Family Tree
14. Dr. Kathy Johnston - From X Segments to Success
Stories: The Use of the X Chromosome in Genetic Genealogy
15. Thomas Krahn - I've Received my Y Chromosome
Sequencing Results - What Now?
16. Dr. Doug McDonald - Understanding Autosomal
Biogeographical Ancestry Results
17. 23andMe representative - 23andMe Features
18. CeCe Moore - The Four Types of DNA Used in
Genetic Genealogy
19. Dr. Ken Nordtvedt - Y Haplogroup I —
Very Early Europeans?
20. Dr. Ugo Perego - Native American Ancestry through
DNA Analysis
21. Dr. David Pike- The Use of Phasing in Genetic
Genealogy
22. Bonnie Schrack - Y chromosome Haplogroups A and B
23. Larry Vick - Using Y-DNA to Reconstruct a
Patrilineal Tree
24. Debbie Parker Wayne- Mitochondrial DNA: Tools and
Techniques for Genealogy
25. Dr. Spencer Wells - the Genographic Project
26. Dr. Jim Wilson- Chromo 2 test and Y chromosome
research
===============================================================
WHY IS
THERE MORE OR LESS INTEREST IN VARIOUS GENEALOGIES?
Jack Graves asked the question in the GFA
Facebook group: ÒWould you know why there are so many of us in genealogy
270?Ó My answer was that I donÕt
know, but I can speculate on the reasons, which include the following:
á
Maybe there are more descendants of genealogy 270 in the U.S. We donÕt know how many total
descendants of each known ancestor there are; we just know how many we have in
each genealogy, and genealogy 270 is the largest followed by genealogy 166, but
the size of the genealogies is partly determined by how much effort has been
spent in researching and compiling the genealogies. The latest version of the Facebook Member file shows 50
people for gen. 270, 48 for gen. 169, 30 for gen. 168, and 25 for gen.
166. Those were all for immigrants
who arrived in the U.S. in the 1600Õs.
á
People in some areas of the U.S. and in some countries are more
interested in family history than people elsewhere.
á
Genealogy and DNA testing is perceived differently in different areas,
especially in the U.S. versus Europe.
á
People in some areas or descended from some genealogies may feel that
they already know everything there is to know about their family history.
á
Descendants of some families may feel this Facebook group and the GFA
are less apt to be of help to them.
For instance, those descended from German ancestry such as gen. 105
might feel that this is all about families from England, and people in England
might feel this is all about American families.
á
Less research has been done for some families, so fewer people know of
their descent from those families.
A more general question is why are the members
of the group not in proportion to their relative frequencies in the general
population? Why arenÕt there more
members from genealogies 166, 168, and 169, all of which were in America from
the early 1600s? I donÕt know the
answer to that either, but the reasons are probably similar to those for the
first question.
Do any of you have any additional thoughts about
this?
===============================================================
VIEWING TV PROGRAMS FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY
Often programs are Òblacked outÓ for TV
viewers from another country, or even from another part of the same country
(e.g., sports events), and some parts of websites are not available to people
accessing from some locations. To
get around this limitation, the easiest way may be to use a VPN (virtual
private network), which creates an encrypted link between your computer and a
remote server somewhere else. With
a VPN, you appear as a computer located wherever the VPN gateway is located,
rather than as a computer at your actual location. With a VPN, everything you send and receive over this link
is encrypted, providing much more security and protectors from hackers than not
using one. This encryption is
especially valuable when accessing the Internet from public networks in
airports, hotels, and other public networks. This also allows you to avoid much of the tracking by
government agencies and commercial websites.
A VPN gateway in the United Kingdom will allow
someone in another country to watch Who Do You Think You Are? and other
TV programs and videos that normally are available only to U.K. residents.
One good VPN choice is called Private
Internet Access, or PIA. This is a service offered by a small company
simply known as PrivateInternetAccess.com, located in the United States.
However, the company has access to VPN gateways in ten different countries,
including Canada, two different locations in the U.K., plus single locations in
Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Germany, Romania, and Hong Kong as
well as in several locations around the United States. You can create a VPN
connection to any of those locations, and your connection on the Internet will
appear as an I.P. address located in that country. PrivateInternetAccess.com
guarantees that your connections will never be logged. Once you finish your
online session and disconnect from PrivateInternetAccess.com, no record of your
usage will ever be saved.
PrivateInternetAccess.com claims their VPN
services unblock censorship filters, and that their software features one-click
installers, allowing the service to be enabled immediately. The process is simple on both Windows
and Macintosh systems. Installation
on other systems such as iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, Android, Unix, etc., may require some
configuration changes within the operating systems.
The cost of Private Internet Access is $6.95 a
month or $39.95 a year. You can
learn more or even download the Private Internet Access software by clicking here.
Consumers use a private VPN service, also
known as a VPN tunnel,
to protect their online activity and identity. By using an anonymous VPN
service, a user's Internet traffic and data remain encrypted, which
prevents eavesdroppers from sniffing Internet activity. A VPN service is
especially useful when accessing public Wi-Fi hotspots because the
public wireless services might not be secure. In addition to public Wi-Fi
security, a private VPN service also provides consumers with uncensored
Internet access and can help prevent data theft and unblock websites.
WHICH
VPN SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?
A discussion of VPNs and suggestions on
selecting a VPN is in an article in Lifehacker here. Private Internet Access tops their
list, and is perhaps the best choice for effectiveness and price.
An
article in PCWorld gives a good summary of the
benefits of using a VPN, and a few suggestions for selecting one.
===============================================================
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.