GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN

 

Vol. 16, No. 5, May 25, 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

 

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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.

 

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CONTENTS

 

** General Comments

** Updates for Graves Gatherings in Texas & Washington, DC

** Finding Your Connection to an Earlier Genealogy

** Big Y DNA Test at Family Tree DNA

** myOrigins Ancestral Origins Test Introduced by Family Tree DNA

** The Human Family Tree from National Geographic

** New File Analysis Offer from Full Genomes Corporation for Big Y Results

** Was the Father of John Julius Graves of NY from NY, Canada, or Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England?

** Success in Connecting to Genealogy 13

** Updates to the GFA Website

** Misleading DNA Test Claims for Location of Your Ancestors

** The Sub Rosa Plantation of Hinds Co., Mississippi

** Interesting Miscellaneous Websites

** To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things

 

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GENERAL COMMENTS

 

For all of you in the U.S., this is Memorial Day weekend.  Enjoy having a long weekend, and remember what itÕs all about!

 

Some of the articles in this issue of the GF Bulletin are a little more technical than usual.  The subjects just interested me, so I decided to include them.  You can obviously skip them if they arenÕt of interest to you.

 

DonÕt forget to let the organizers know if you are interested in attending either the Graves meeting in San Antonio or the one in Washington, DC this summer.  I would enjoy seeing you at either one.

 

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UPDATES FOR GRAVES GATHERINGS IN TEXAS & WASHINGTON, DC

 

We will be having two Graves family gatherings this summer, one in Texas in July and the second in Arlington, VA or Washington, DC in August.

 

JULY MEETING IN TEXAS

Ron Graves is the one to contact about the Graves Family Association meeting in San Antonio, Texas, July 26, 2014. Ken Graves, Executive Director, GFA, will attend and make several presentations, answer questions, and in general get to know more of the GFA members. Email Ron about your interest. He wrote Òwe will coordinate most with email and private Facebook messages rather than have the entire process on FB. Details coming soon but make your plans now to attend starting Friday evening 7/25 and all day 7/26. THIS IS FOR ANY GRAVES DESCENDANT. Come share your family with others. My email is gravesronn@cs.com. Let me know your interest in the GFA meeting 7/26.Ó

 

AUGUST MEETING IN WASHINGTON, DC/ARLINGTON, VA

A meeting of the Graves Family Association Mid-Atlantic chapter (GFAMAC) in Washington, DC or Arlington, VA will be held either late afternoon or early evening on either Friday, August 15th or Sunday, August 17th.  This will be planned around the International Genetic Genealogy Conference in Washington, DC, Aug. 15-17, that Ken Graves will be attending.  Ken will be the featured speaker.  As with the July meeting in Texas, this will be for all Graves/Greaves families.  If you are interested in attending a meeting at either of those times, contact John Graves, GFAMAC Coordinator, johngtmti@aol.com.Ó

 

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FINDING YOUR CONNECTION TO AN EARLIER GENEALOGY

 

I have begun including articles like the following for two reasons.  First, I want to give some examples of the ways I go about solving problems and trying to help people.  Second, I will appreciate any and all suggestions from readers on other things that could be done, as well as answers and solutions to the questions and problems discussed.

 

Bob Graves, descended from Peter Kilts Graves and Lucy An Shears of NY & WI (genealogy 351) wrote:

My wife and I have done extensive research on our family lineage and have found numerous references and corrected many earlier errors submitted by several sources.  Every link and connection has been confirmed and verified before inclusion.  We are listed as family #351 that has no apparent connection to any established Graves family.  I have completed the DNA to give us an indication and help us in our search.  As you can see, we tracked Peter Kilts Graves back to his birth in 1806-1807, but have dead-ended at that point.   We have spent countless hours trying to find additional data on Peter and his father, and have literally run out of sources.  Realizing inaccuracy in transcriptions, we have visualized every census and church record line by line, from half the state of New York in an effort to find his parents.  Do you have any clues or advice at this point?  When you list families in the bulletin, do you typically receive responses or any help from members?

 

I responded:

There are several things that can be done to help you learn more about your ancestry.

 

(1) In looking at your Y-DNA matches, I see that you match many other Graves men, and they are all from the group descended from genealogy 228 (Greaves Family of Beeley, Derbyshire, England). The two immigrant families to New England that are from that line are from Rear Admiral Thomas Graves of Charlestown, MA (genealogy 28) and John Graves of Concord, MA (genealogy 166). All the matches for genealogies 28 and 166 are at genetic distances of 0 or 1 for the 37-marker Y-DNA test. What is needed is to increase the amount of DNA information so that we can better distinguish between the various ancestral lines from the genealogy 228 ancestry. (I have little practical experience with this because we have very few people who have taken higher resolution tests so far.)

 

Upgrade your Y-DNA test to more markers, preferably to the maximum of 111 markers. For this to be helpful, there have to be other test results to compare it to. There are at least 3 people from gen. 28 and at least 9 from gen. 166 who have taken a Y-DNA test, and at least some from each genealogy would need to upgrade to 111 markers.

 

(2) The other type of Y-DNA test that could be used tests for a different kind of marker, called a SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism). The Y-DNA37 and Y-DNA111 tests are for what are called STRs (short tandem repeats). The version of the SNP test that we presently have is called Big Y from Family Tree DNA. This is a new test, and I don't recommend taking that test as the first step. We need to learn more about the results of this test and how to interpret them. Also, the price of it will probably be dropping in the future. You can see more about STRs and SNPs in the help area of FTDNA or by just Googling the terms.

 

(3) A third type of DNA test that might be helpful is an autosomal DNA test (for example, Family Finder from Family Tree DNA). This traces all ancestral lines, but not consistently back more that 5 or 6 generations. In addition to finding matches with others who have Graves ancestry, it might show matches with other surnames in either genealogy 28 or 166. And to increase the chances of finding meaningful matches, you can test at multiple companies.

 

Once you got more clues from one or more of the 3 tests mentioned above, you might be able to focus your traditional research in a much narrower area, with much more chance of proving a specific connection.

 

(4) One other approach I suggest (if you have not already tried it) is looking for other Graves families in the areas where your Graves family lived, especially in the earlier census records, and then investigating the possibility of a connection with them.

 

(5) If you don't already subscribe to the free online Graves Family Bulletin that I publish, you might want to. Sometimes I give information that could be of help.

 

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BIG Y DNA TEST AT FAMILY TREE DNA

 

The Big Y test was mentioned in the preceding article as one way to find earlier ancestry, specifically by suggesting a line of descent from a family born earlier than your earliest known ancestor.  A good example of where that might be most likely to be helpful is in the large group of families descended from genealogy 228, where the specific connections are unknown.  However, be aware that because of the cost and the present difficulty in using the results, this is not for everyone.

 

To learn more about the Big Y product, visit the Family Tree DNA Learning Center here.  The following discussion is taken from that page.

 

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.

 

Who may order the BIG Y?

Any male Family Tree DNA customer may order the BIG Y product. However, we do ask that you consider the following before ordering.

¥       A high quality sample is needed for BIG Y. Therefore, the person tested should be willing and able to provide a new DNA sample if needed.

¥       All customers are strongly encouraged to seek the guidance of a Y-DNA haplogroup project administrator before ordering.

¥       Most results interpretation for BIG Y will come from volunteer project administrators including Y-DNA haplogroup administrators.

¥       BIG Y is in BETA development, those who order now should expect to be part of the new product development process.

 

How do I order the BIG Y product?

Any male Family Tree DNA customer may order the BIG Y product through their myFTDNA account. To do so:

¥       Login to your myFTDNA account. (https://www.familytreedna.com/login.aspx)

¥       On the top, right of the homepage, look for the orange Order an Upgrade button.

¥       Click the button to access the Upgrade page.

¥       Look for the Standard Orders section, and click the Order a Standard Test button.

¥       On the Select A Product page, look for the product dropdown menu. Use it to select Big Y.

¥       Click the Next button at the bottom of the page to continue to the checkout wizard and complete your order.

 

What distinguishes BIG Y from other Y-DNA SNP testing like Geno 2.0?

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.  (This is what makes it potentially valuable to the Graves/Greaves project.  It may help us find and verify branches of compiled families, and connections of relatively recent families to their older ancestral families.)

Geno 2.0 is microarray chip based and programmed for specific SNPs. BIG Y is a next-generation sequence-based test.

 

Will there be results pages to explain my results?

Yes, in addition to a list of variants, we will illustrate how your results relate to your branch on the human paternal tree.

 

You can see a blog article by Roberta Estes about Big Y Chrome Extension here.

 

WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH BIG Y IN THE GRAVES DNA PROJECT?

Tom Graves and I are the only two with Graves surnames known to have received our results so far.  We are both descended from genealogy 270.  Work with your Y-DNA haplogroup administrator.  For Tom and me this is ÒU152 and Subclades Research ProjectÓ, Steve Gilbert administrator.

 

THE FTDNA LEARNING CENTER AND MORE BIG Y INFORMATION

In March, Family Tree DNA announced that they have worked to have the most complete knowledge base of information on genetic genealogy. ÒWe have built that content into our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) pages. What was lacking was presentation and functional search capabilities. The Learning Center seeks to address those shortfalls. In the past few months, I have moved the content from our FAQ to The Learning Center. Very soon, we will turn off the FAQ and redirect all links to The Learning Center.Ó

 

As part of the launch of the Big Y test, FTDNA included an overview of BIG Y, a user interface walk-through, and a product launch webinar (online seminar). All the webinars, both scheduled and archived, can be found in the Learning Center here.  The Big Y archived webinar is in the Y-chromosome DNA section.

 

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MYORIGINS ANCESTRAL ORIGINS TEST INTRODUCED BY FAMILY TREE DNA

 

Family Tree DNA just introduced a new version of showing your ancestral origins.  This is one of the tools provided for the Family Finder autosomal DNA test.  Anyone who has already taken this test, as well as future purchasers, will have this tool available.  It allows you to:

á      Discover your ethnic origins across 18 population clusters.

á      See where your matchesÕ most distant maternal and paternal ancestors came from.

á      Find your relatives and explore their ethnic origins.

 

My initial reaction to this is that it is very interesting and I like it, but there are some unanswered questions.  For more information about this, see the help pages on Family Tree DNA here and here, Randy SeaverÕs Genea-Musings blog article here, and Roberta EstesÕ blog article here.  If you would like to receive future FTDNA news posts, there is a place at the top right of their articles to sign up.

 

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THE HUMAN FAMILY TREE FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

 

A great introductory documentary by National Geographic called the Human Family Tree featuring Spencer Wells, and lots of New Yorkers who DNA tested can be seen here.  Like all Nat Geo productions, the photography and video itself is beautifully done.

 

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NEW DNA FILE ANALYSIS OFFER FROM FULL GENOMES CORPORATION FOR BIG Y RESULTS

 

Debbie Kennett reported about a new BAM file analysis service from Full Genomes Corporation and a special offer on the FGC test. You can see more here.  The results from the Big Y test from Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) are provided on request in BAM file format.  A BAM file (.bam) is the binary version of a SAM (Sequence Alignment/Map) file. A SAM file (.sam) is a tab-delimited text file that contains sequence alignment data. These formats are described on the SAM Tools website.

 

This analysis service is something that will probably only be of interest to ÒhardcoreÓ researchers and DNA enthusiasts.  I definitely do not recommend it for everyone.  For people who have taken or plan to take the Big Y test, it is strongly recommended that you join the appropriate haplogroup project and work with the administrator there as well as with your surname project administrator.

 

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WAS THE FATHER OF JOHN JULIUS GRAVES OF NY FROM NY, CANADA, OR HORNCASTLE, LINCOLNSHIRE, ENGLAND?

 

It was previously thought that Julius John Graves of genealogy 587 might be a son of John S. Graves who was born about 1806-1810 in NY and married Catherine ‑‑‑‑‑‑.  She was born about 1810-1812 in NY.  They were in the 1850 and 1860 censuses for Albany, Ward 3, Albany Co., NY.  He was a baker.  All their children were born in NY.  Their children were Matilda Graves, b.c. 1833, Charles Graves, b.c. 1838, John J. Graves, b.c. 1840, Anna J. Graves, b.c. 1843, and Mary Emma Graves, b.c. 1848.  However, the John J. Graves of that family is actually John Jay Graves, son of John Simons Graves of genealogy 166.

 

It has been claimed by descendants of Julius John Graves that his parents were John Graves, born 1810 in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England, and Julia Heath, born 1810 in England, daughter of Philip Heath and Betsy Marston.  It has also been stated that the John Graves who married Julia Heath died in the U.S., perhaps in Chaumont, Jefferson Co., NY.  It has also been stated that John Graves, born 1810, was born in Canada.  Trying to sort out all these claims has been difficult.  No credible candidates for Julius John Graves or his parents have been found in either the 1850 of 1860 censuses of NY or elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada.

 

The evidence that John Graves, father of Julius Graves, was from Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England, seems to be that there was a John Graves, tailor, born about 1810 in Horncastle, and living there with a Hannah Draby in the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses.  The 1851 census for Horncastle shows this same John Graves, tailor born 1810, and his brother George, born 1826, basket maker, living with their widowed mother Maria Graves, born about 1780 in Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire.  The 1841 census for Horncastle lists David Graves and Maria Graves, both age 60, born about 1781 in Lincolnshire, with no children with them.  Their sons, Frederick (b.c. 1806), basket maker, and John (b.c. 1801), tailor, were living together at the Market Place, Horncastle, in 1841.  There seems to be no evidence that this John Graves ever married or that he had a son named John Julius or Julius John Graves.  I suspect that this person was selected as the result of a search of the censuses of England because his date of birth matched that of the person believed to be the father of Julius.  If Julius was born in NY about 1842, then his father (or at least his mother) would have had to have been there also, not in England.

 

For anyone researching the family that includes David Graves and Maria, there are a number of submitted genealogies for them on Ancestry.com that show David Graves, b. July 1778, Lincolnshire, d. Oct. 1849, Horncastle, m. Maria Lee.  David was a son of John Graves and Elizabeth ‑‑‑‑‑‑.  Although this part of the family does not seem to be in any genealogy presently on the GFA website, based on name and place similarities it may be closely related to genealogies 404, 797 and 976, all near Louth, which is only about 13 miles from Horncastle.

 

The ancestry of Julius John Graves is not presently known, but further research and clues from DNA testing may help in the future.  Any help will be appreciated.

 

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SUCCESS IN CONNECTING TO GENEALOGY 13

 

David Morgan is descended from David Graves and Mary Ann Durham of NC and TN, which has been genealogy 535.  He has been trying for many years to prove that his David Graves was a son of Frederick Graves and Christina Black of genealogy 13.  Although there are always unanswered questions, I have finally decided that the evidence is strong enough to add genealogy 535 to genealogy 13.  An updated version of genealogy 13 has been put on the GFA website.

 

His main evidence is from DNA testing and from census records.  His autosomal DNA and that of his sister match that of many of the genealogy 13 descendants, and the Y-DNA of a cousin of his matches the Y-DNA of genealogy 13 descendants.  His David Graves is the only person who could be the unknown son of Frederick Graves and Christina Black in genealogy 13.

 

He commented that Frederick and Christina had two sons under 10 years of age on the 1820 census of Sumner County, Tennessee.  One is James, born 1818 in Sumner County. The only other possibility is my David Graves.  According to the 1850 census of Sumner County, David was 29.  But I think he must have been a few years older than that. His wife's age is at least 10 years off. She was not 37 as the census states, but 27. This fits in with all the DNA I have been comparing Tommy Dan Graves (DavidÕs second cousin) and myself to.  So I will agree with Michael Allen Graves, a descendant of Frederick Graves, that David Graves was born 1815.

 

Tommy Dan Graves is my 2nd cousin. He and I have the same great-great grandfather, James Carroll Graves, born in Sumner County, Tennessee in 1839, the son of David Graves and Mary Ann Durham. I have the death certificate of James Carroll Graves, showing his parents as David Graves and Mary Ann Durham.

 

The father-in-law of David Graves, James Durham, was very prominent in Sumner County Tennessee.  I believe they moved to the Durham farm when David and Mary Ann got married in 1838, and that is where David died in the 1850s.  He is on the 1850 census of Sumner County, Tennessee, two doors down from James Durham.

 

THE ANCESTRY OF GENEALOGY 13 NEEDS TO BE FOUND

William Graves, the patriarch of genealogy 13, may have been born about 1755, perhaps in Virginia.  Various suggestions have been made regarding his ancestry, but nothing is presently known for sure.  One suggestion is that he was from the Graves family of Caswell Co., NC (genealogy 270), but DNA testing refutes that.  Based on Y-DNA testing, genealogy 13 is most closely related to gen. 148 (John S. Graves of NC, Livingston Co., KY & Johnson Co., IL) and gen. 441 (John R. Graves and Hannah Corder of TN, KY & IL).  This John R. Graves was born about 1790, was married in Allen Co., KY, and could be another son of William Graves of gen. 13.  John S. Graves was born about 1776 and was probably also closely related to William Graves of gen. 13.

 

Y-DNA test results show a slightly more remote connection to genealogy 106 (John Samuel Graves and Mary Blocker of SC) and an even more distant connection to genealogy 116 (John Graves of England and Frederick Co., VA, born about 1735).  It appears from DNA testing that this group of families may be from Cambridgeshire or Lancashire, England, but the DNA matching is not good enough to be confident of that.  It is possible that testing of Y-chromosome SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) such as with the Big Y test will eventually help us learn more about this ancestry.

 

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UPDATES TO THE GFA WEBSITE

 

Changes and additions continue to be made to the website and to the files on it.  Recent ones include the following:

á      A link to Research Puzzles has been added to the Research drop-down menu at the top of every page.

á      The GFA Facebook page (accessible from the GFA/Forums drop-down menu) and the files on it have been updated.  Because of the importance of using Gedmatch.com to find matching DNA segments, the Facebook table of Gedmatch numbers has been put on this page also.

á      As part of the transition to relying on the DNA test results summary pages on the Family Tree DNA website, links to those pages have been put on the DNA Research page (available from the DNA drop-down menu) and as a separate link called ÒTest Results on FTDNA WebsiteÓ on the DNA drop-down menu.

á      The Membership drop-down tab has been added to the GFA/Forums tab, and a new tab has been added, Other Families.  In that menu, related families Croshaw and Davenport have been added.

 

Genealogies added include:

á      44, Parents of Amelia Graves and William Abney, and Judith Graves and Joseph Clark of VA & KY

 

Genealogies Revised include:

á      5, James Graves and Dorothy Lashley of Kent, England

á      13, William Graves and Elizabeth ------ of VA, NC, TN & KY

á      65, Deacon George Graves of Hartford, CT

á      126, Thomas Graves of Northampton Co., VA

á      155, Dr. Thomas Graves and Charity ------ of Marion Co., SC, & Pike Co., AL

á      156, Joseph Greaves and Mary Bennett of England and SC

á      166, John Graves of Concord, MA

á      169, Capt. Thomas Graves of VA

á      211, Benjamin Graves and Mildred Hancock of VA and Wilson Co., TN

á      239, James B. Graves and Mahala Hayes of VT, OH & IL

á      270, John Graves/Greaves of Northamptonshire, England

á      329, William Eaves of VA, father of Graves Eaves

á      379, James S. Graves of AL

á      587, Julius John Graves and Helen Barto of NY, IL, IA, NE & OR

á      924, James Greaves and Sarah Denny of Tingewick, Buckinghamshire, England

 

Other:

á      776 (Louisa Graves and James Walker McElwain of IL & MO) has been added to 239 (James B. Graves and Mahala Hayes of VT, OH & IL)

á      535 (James David Graves and Mary Ann Durham of NC & TN) has been added to 13 (William Graves and Elizabeth ------ of VA, NC, TN & KY)

 

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MISLEADING DNA TEST CLAIMS FOR LOCATION OF YOUR ANCESTORS

 

There has recently been publicity for a method to use autosomal DNA test results to pinpoint the location of ones ancestors.  Articles include one in the Washington Post and one in Science Daily.  The claim is that Òthe ground-breaking Geographic Population Structure (GPS) tool É works similarly to a satellite navigation systemÓ helping you find your ancestral home from 1,000 years ago.  ÒWhat is remarkable is that we can do this so accurately that we can locate the village where your ancestors lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago.Ó

 

Dick Eastman, in his newsletter of May 12, has included an article about this.  He cited a Gizmodo article and an accompanying video, but made no comments about the validity of the technique.

 

Does this sound too good to be true?  Yes, it does, and unfortunately, it is.  This might have some merit for those with all their ancestors from the same place.  But probably all of us have ancestors from many different places, and the technique is not going to work.  I do not recommend it.  The product is offered through Prosapia Genetics, which put a temporary hold on accepting new orders as a result of much criticism, but is now accepting orders again after making a few changes.

 

For commentary explaining the problems with this product, see DienekesÕ Anthropology Blog and the article by Debbie Kennett on Cruwys News.

 

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THE SUB ROSA PLANTATION OF HINDS CO., MISSISSIPPI

 

Jaquecia Sanders of the Treme Community Center in New Orleans, LA (see also here), recently contacted me about a sign for the Sub Rosa plantation in Hinds Co., MS (near Jackson, MS) that is available to anyone who would like to buy it.  The sign is 6 feet wide and 4 feet tall, is almost 200 years old, was buried for about 100 years, and was found two years ago about 3-4 feet underground by a developer on a property he purchased in Jackson, MS.  The sign was donated to Unity In The Community, an organization affiliated with the Treme Center.  Anyone interested should contact Jay Sanders, secretary, 678-462-3487, or Monica, coordinator, 225-288-4608.

 

More information can be seen in the nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places, and in Appendix D of genealogy 156 (including an unusual story about a secret underground meeting room).  A picture of the sign is here.

 

The Sub Rosa plantation was built by Major John Madison Greaves of genealogy 156 (Joseph Greaves and Mary Bennett of England and South Carolina).  His brother, Dr. William Francis Greaves, was buried at or near there.  Genealogy 156 has been shown by DNA testing to share a common ancestor with and probably descended from Ralph Greaves of Sheffield, Yorkshire, England (genealogy 197).

 

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INTERESTING MISCELLANEOUS WEBSITES

 

BRITISH PATHE OPENS ITS ARCHIVES

News that British PathŽ has added all 85,000 of its films to its YouTube channel should come with a health warning: dip a toe in its archival stream and you risk losing all sense of time and place – and half a day. More than 3,500 hours of newsreels include classics such as the Hindenburg disaster and Arnold Schwarzenegger at Mr. Universe 1969, but is best viewed as a captivating resource for personal historians

 

 The vast digital library spans 1896 to 1976. A search function allows you to enter any word you like - your street perhaps, or favourite childhood haunts.

 

You can see the article about it here, or go directly to the YouTube channel here.

 

THE REMARKABLE PERSISTENCE OF POWER AND PRIVILEGE

An article published 30 April 2014 by Australian Andrew Leigh discusses social mobility over many generations for people in various countries.  In his study, he used surnames because data on income and wealth distribution has not been available for a long enough period of time.

 

In a very mobile society, privilege dissipates quickly. Children of doctors become labourers, and children of cleaners become lawyers. ÒClass-jumpingÓ is the norm. Conversely, in an immobile society, we should expect to see privilege perpetuated across generations. If wealth can easily be passed down to oneÕs children, if education is costly, and if jobs are based on old school ties rather than ability, then the same surnames will stay at the top across generations.  His study indicates that most societies are not very fluid, and that social status is at least as hereditable as height.  It suggests that while the ruling class and the underclass are not permanent, they are extremely long-lasting. Erasing privilege takes not two or three generations, but ten to fifteen generations.

 

MAPS OF THE CHANGING BOUNDARIES IN THE UNITED STATES

An interesting animated map of the United States from March 4, 1789 (when the U.S. Constitution took effect) to Aug. 21, 1959 (when Congress admitted Hawaii as the 50th state) can be seen here.  Since this map is composed of 97 separate maps that change pretty quickly, you may want to be able to look at some of the maps individually.  To do that, follow the steps below.  This map is called an animated GIF or often just a GIF.  Animated GIFs are usually made from videos, but they can be made from a series of pictures also.  Free software and instruction are available on the Internet.

¥       Go to the animated map by clicking on the link above, and then right click on the map and click on Òcopy image addressÓ or Òcopy image URL.Ó

¥       Go to the gif-explode site by clicking here.

¥       Paste the address from the first step into the ÒFetchÓ box, and then click ÒFetch.Ó

¥       You will then see the animated map on your screen with all 97 of the individual maps below it.

 

If you find it helpful to know state and territorial boundaries in the U.S., you may find Animap much more helpful.  This program displays over 2,300 maps to show the changing county boundaries for each of the 48 states of the U.S. since colonial times, starting with Virginia boundaries in 1617.  It has many other features, including databases of more than one million place names, over 50,000 no longer existing.  It does cost about $80, and is only available for PCs (no Mac version).  A video that covers many of its features can be seen here.

 

USING NEWSPAPERS FOR GENEALOGY

ItÕs amazing what can be found online.  Click here to see the history of newspapers across the USA both geographically and through time on YouTube.  This is from Lisa Louise CookeÕs book How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers.  There are other interesting and helpful videos available at this site also.  This is another example of the animated GIF mentioned above.

 

This video was created by the Rural West Initiative of the Bill Lane Center for the American West, Stanford University, and can also be seen here.  It shows all newspapers in all languages published in the U.S. from 1690 to 2011.  The source of this can be seen on the Stanford University site here.  Another site related to this is on Vimeo here.

 

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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.