Graves Family Bulletin, Vol. 19, No. 9

GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN

Vol. 19, No. 9, December 26, 2017

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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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

** More About DNA Testing and Family Tree DNA Holiday Sale

** Temporary Problems With GFA Website Have Been Fixed

** Book About European Ancestry and Families of Viking Origin

** Most Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong

** Book About Dogs by Laura Greaves of New South Wales, Australia

** To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things

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GENERAL COMMENTS

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Since the year and the Family Tree DNA holiday sale will both be ending at midnight (Central Standard Time in the U.S.), December 31, this is my last opportunity to encourage more of you to take advantage of the holiday sale to order the Big Y test. Some of the other tests are helpful also, but the Big Y test for males is the main one needed to enable us to connect related genealogies and prove male lineages.

I have included a list of the coupons I have access to for Big Y and other DNA tests for this final week. If you want to take a Big Y test but can’t afford the cost, I can see that adequate money is made available. Even though the analysis of the results and their use for constructing our family tree has progressed much slower than I had hoped, the eventual results will be well worthwhile for all of us. Please order before the sale ends!

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MORE ABOUT DNA TESTING AND FAMILY TREE DNA HOLIDAY SALE

The Family Tree DNA holiday sale ends at midnight, Dec. 31. Many of the DNA tests are helpful in tracing your ancestry, or of possible interest to you. However, for those of you who are male or are responsible for the testing of male family members, I encourage the purchase of a Big Y test or a recommended SNP Pack, or to help fund one for someone else in your part of the family.

During the holiday sale, any customer who purchases the Big Y will receive a free upgrade to Y-111 from any level STR test. You MUST currently have a Y-DNA test either ordered or completed in the system.

COUPONS

FTDNA is giving away coupons (called Holiday Rewards) for their most popular DNA tests. New coupons have been posted every Monday. If you are a FTDNA customer, go to your personal page and click on the link at the top of your page. They are also allowing all their customers to share those coupons with anyone else by just entering your name and the recipient’s email address. The coupons are only good for 7 days, so check your personal page on FTDNA and either use the coupon or offer to share it with someone else. Check your Holiday Rewards to see what you have.

Coupons I presently have that you are welcome to use (all expiring on Dec. 31) are listed below. Since Big Y is $475 during this sale, the $75 off coupons apply to it.

COUPON CODE	SPECIAL OFFER

R344CA7NLH0B	$5 off any purchase of $39 or more
R34J1MXOYVFI	$5 off any purchase of $39 or more
R34DSWJ724QU	$5 off any purchase of $39 or more
R346AGFV4ON5	$5 off any purchase of $39 or more
R344UHKZNLDH	$5 off any purchase of $39 or more
R34ZDQNDRHF0	$5 off any purchase of $39 or more

R342JXS18AD3	$10 off any purchase of $100 or more
R34R5CX6F37K	$10 off any purchase of $100 or more
R34QGLTZU06M	$10 off any purchase of $100 or more
R349R9OQI3ZX	$10 off any purchase of $100 or more
R34FOUIYR4PJ	$10 off any purchase of $100 or more
R34K5EEANJSX	$10 off any purchase of $100 or more
R34YC6P9NETK	$10 off any purchase of $100 or more
R34WEFN50MZ0	$10 off any purchase of $100 or more
R3496NZUIWB3	$10 off any purchase of $100 or more
R34I4BEJSMTN	$20 off any purchase of $175 or more
R34IT99Y7C9Y	$20 off any purchase of $175 or more
R340S2W0XM2B	$20 off any purchase of $175 or more
R34F9VZXDC5T	$20 off any purchase of $175 or more
R34BCSY5M1R7	$20 off any purchase of $175 or more
R348R0BKAL75	$20 off any purchase of $175 or more
R34TIV2ESMD1	$20 off any purchase of $175 or more
R34IJWWICY3F	$20 off any purchase of $175 or more
R345610J490T	$20 off any purchase of $175 or more
R34C4ZOH0G0Y	$50 off any purchase of $350 or more
R34BSII7BZD5	$50 off any purchase of $350 or more
R34RC7YQYY8B	$50 off any purchase of $350 or more
R346F2TI2Q2A	$50 off any purchase of $350 or more
R34WJEEJONMZ	$75 off any purchase of $475 or more
R343II4IBVZB	$75 off any purchase of $475 or more
R34BS401B4UJ	$75 off any purchase of $475 or more
R34E1NK27LAE	$75 off any purchase of $475 or more
R347FYOV50YV	$75 off any purchase of $475 or more
R343GCYGMZCA	$75 off any purchase of $475 or more

R34C7KI3NT8Y	$100 off any purchase of $525 or more
R347JQ1HZAQM	$100 off any purchase of $525 or more

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES TO YOU AND OTHERS OF TAKING TESTS LIKE BIG Y?

• Finding where your Graves/Greaves ancestor lived at a particular time in the past, possibly allowing tracking of their migration and dispersion paths. This comes partly via some descendants knowing where their ancestors lived.

• Discovering about when the surname first began to be used for your particular line.

• Finding how your Graves/Greaves family is related to other Graves/Greaves families.

• Finding how your family connects with other families that share a common Graves/Greaves ancestor.

• Finding SNPs belonging to specific branches or even to people within branches of large families, allowing confirmation of lineages and proper placement of previously unplaced segments of families.

• Much better identification and placement of people of unknown ancestry, such as adoptees.

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TEMPORARY PROBLEMS WITH GFA WEBSITE HAVE BEEN FIXED

It sometimes seems that as soon as one problem is fixed, another pops up. I just recently discovered that the Graves Family Association website could not be accessed, and was instead displaying a message that it was not secure. That problem has now been fixed by upgrading from HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) to HTTPS (HTTP Secure), and adding SSL and website security.

As part of that process, at least two additional problems developed. The search box no longer nicely shrunk down to the left side of the page, and the listing of subpages no longer displayed when a mouse hovered over the tabs at the top of the page. Those problems have been fixed. Please let me know if you find other problems.

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BOOK ABOUT EUROPEAN ANCESTRY AND FAMILIES OF VIKING ORIGIN

Charles L. Graves wrote me the following comments on Nov. 29. He is descended from genealogy 70 for Richard Greaves of Bradfield, Yorkshire and Chesterfield, Derbyshire, born about 1560. He has previously contributed valuable research results for the possible origin and associates of Capt. Thomas Graves of Virginia (gen. 169).

He wrote: “Now I have read the book by Karin Bojs a journalist member of the Swedish Genetic Genealogy Society (SSGG). It is entitled My European Family. The First 54,000 years (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2017), which should be a main source for all Greaves and Graves with a Scandinavian background like my family. She is from the Gothenberg area in Bohuslan on the west coast just south of Norway and discusses the origins of peoples from that region based on their DNA back 8-10,000 years. They are the people who, together with the Danes from north Jutland, invaded eastern England from 850 AD onwards for 150 years (Vikings) and probably account for most Greaves and Graves ancestors.

In her book she has all the Haplogroups defined vis à vis Europeans, based upon widespread numbers of scientists she interviewed at various archaeological and university sites all over Europe. The book is extremely relevant DNA explanatory source for a family such as Graves.

By the way, after finding my Greaves roots in Yorkshire / Derbyshire I have visited Shirland, Derbys, very often and even today take my twice yearly holidays there. We held reunions there in 2004 (for mainly second and earlier cousins) and in 2016 (for my brother and first cousins). I have found the exact location of my great-great-grandfather Samuel Greaves’ farm which he left in 1819 to go to New York. It is a kind of place of pilgrimage, together with his wife’s (Sarah Blount’s) village nearby. Our last reunion was held in a hotel which once was lived in, as farmhouse, by Sarah’s mother’s family.”

See a review of her book here. It is available from Amazon and elsewhere.

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MOST EVERYTHING YOU LEARNED ABOUT THANKSGIVING IS WRONG

An article about Thanksgiving was in the Nov. 21 issue of the New York Times. According to the article, “the story of the first Thanksgiving, as most Americans have been taught it, is not exactly accurate.

Blame school textbooks with details often so abridged, softened or out of context that they are rendered false; children’s books that distill the story to its most pleasant version; or animated Thanksgiving television specials like “The Mouse on the Mayflower,” which first aired in 1968, that not only misinformed a generation, but also enforced a slew of cringeworthy stereotypes.

High school textbooks are particularly bad about stating absolutes because these materials “teach history” by giving students facts to memorize even when the details may be unclear, said James W. Loewen, a sociologist and the author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.”

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BOOK ABOUT DOGS BY LAURA GREAVES OF NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA

An article called “Inspiring stories in Dogs with Jobs from author Laura Greaves” was in the Dec. 8, 2017 issue of Blue Mountains Gazette. This is her second book about dogs, and it went on sale November 27. This book is a collection of true stories about some of the hardest working dogs from around the world. Laura, the former editor of Dogs Life magazine, is also the author of three romantic comedy novels.

The Blue Mountains is a rugged region about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It’s a very scenic area with waterfalls, cliffs, and eucalyptus forests.

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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.