GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN

A Free, Occasional, Online Summary of Items of Interest to Descendants of all Families of Graves, Greaves, Grieves, Grave, and other spelling variations Worldwide

Vol. 7, No. 13, Dec. 29, 2005

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Visit the GFA web site at https://gravesfa.org

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CONTENTS:

** Graves Gatherings in the Southeastern U.S. in Early 2006

** Reminder of New Yahoo Group to Discuss Graves Family Association Issues

** Last Chance to Get a Discount on a Graves/Greaves DNA Test

** More on Francis Graves of Gloucester Co. & Essex Co., VA, and His Descendants

** To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things

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GRAVES GATHERINGS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN U.S. IN EARLY 2006

My wife, Sarah, and I will be leaving Jan. 30 to drive from Massachusetts to Bradenton, Florida, and leaving Florida March 11 to drive home. I would enjoy meeting with any Graves/Greaves descendants (especially a group), especially on the way down. Let me know whether you would be interested. Would you like to organize a gathering of a group of people? Instead of just gathering known family members, maybe someone would like to contact Graves family members in an area who haven't been involved with the Graves Family Association before. If you can gather a group of people, I am willing to deviate from our straight drive down I-95 to wherever you want to host a meeting.

I would also like to organize a gathering in Florida while we are there, perhaps in a private room at a restaurant. Can anyone help find a place for that and help organize it?

These gatherings will be a good opportunity to share family information, learn more about your Graves/Greaves ancestry, learn about the DNA study and even take a DNA test, and ask me questions.

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REMINDER OF NEW YAHOO GROUP TO DISCUSS GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION ISSUES

This is a reminder that a new Yahoo group has been started for discussion of all Graves Family Association activities, including promoting and publicizing the Association, increasing membership and interest, traditional research, the Graves/Greaves/Grieve DNA study, publications, the website, trips, reunions, and any other programs of the Graves Family Association. We are looking for your thoughts on what we should be doing, how it can be done, who will do it, etc. To join the group and participate in the discussion, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gravesfamilyassociation/ and follow the instructions to join.

This group is not for queries about finding specific Graves/Greaves ancestors, since that is covered by other mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc.

We need your help and input to be successful and to do what you want to have happen. Join the discussion group and give us your opinions!

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LAST CHANCE TO GET A DISCOUNT ON A GRAVES/GREAVES DNA TEST

You can still get a $30 discount on a new 25-marker or 37-marker Y-DNA test, or a $15 discount on a new mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) test, if you order and pay for it by Dec. 31.

For people descended from families or parts of families that do not yet have a DNA study participant, we especially need Graves/Greaves men to take the test. The test is easy and painless, just involving rubbing the inside of your mouth with a plastic applicator. The only requirement is that the person taking the Y-DNA test must be a male with the Graves or Greaves surname, since the Y chromosome is only passed on from father to son.

To sign up, go to the GFA website at www.gravesfa.org, click on the DNA link at the top of the main page, then click on the link in the red-outlined box near the top of the next page. This will take you to a page on the Family Tree DNA page. Then just fill out the requested information, and your testing kit will be mailed to you the next day. The 37-marker Y-DNA test is preferred for most participants.

When paying by credit card, after you place your order, contact Juliew@familytreeDNA.com and provide the kit number, and a refund of the value of the Gift Certificate will be posted to the credit card used in the purchase.

When paying by the invoice method, after you place your order, contact Juliew@familytreeDNA.com and provide the kit number. We must receive your payment by December 31, 2005, or the Gift Certificate will expire.

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MORE ON FRANCIS GRAVES OF GLOUCESTER CO. & ESSEX CO., VA, AND HIS DESCENDANTS

As mentioned in the last issue of this bulletin, Francis Graves was previously believed to be the youngest son of Capt. Thomas Graves. It is now apparent that Francis was a son of someone else, and genealogy 220 has been created for this family. It was mentioned that you can see which lines have been tested so far by looking at the chart for genealogy 220 at https://gravesfa.org/chart220.pdf. In order to more fully define the DNA haplotype of Francis Graves and to help find his ancestry, we need to test descendants of other lines from Francis.

You can also see the possible relationship between genealogy 220 and other families that share a common ancestor on the chart at https://gravesfa.org/DNAchart228-connections.pdf. It is believed that most of the Graves families in the southern U.S. that share a common ancestry with Francis Graves were descended from him. Among the exceptions to that are some of the descendants of John Greaves of St. Mary’s Co., MD (genealogy 247) that moved to KY, and the family of John Graves and Margery Harvey of Randolph Co., NC (genealogy 77) that is probably descended from John Graves of Concord, MA (genealogy 166), based on family legend.

As you can see on the chart mentioned above, the families believed to descend from Francis include Thomas Sims Graves (gen. 94), Thomas Graves of Lunenburg Co. & Mecklenburg Co., VA (gen. 152), Thomas Graves of Culpeper Co., VA (gen. 177), James Graves and Mary Copeland of VA & GA (gen. 150), Peter Graves of Surry Co., NC (gen. 11), James Graves of Randolph Co. & Surry Co., NC (gen. 262), Leonard Graves of Culpeper Co., VA (gen.836), and William Graves of Gloucester Co., VA (gen. 889). It can be seen that some of these families have roots in Gloucester Co., VA, many lived in Culpeper Co., VA, and many later lived in Randolph Co., NC. Many of the Randolph Co. families later moved to Blount Co., AL, and to Indiana. Although additional DNA analysis will help connect some of these families, additional traditional research is the key to establishing and proving the exact connections. Your help is needed.

One branch of the family that is still confused and incorrect is that in genealogy 169 (Capt. Thomas Graves of VA), from William Graves who married Sarah Fisher. His line in that genealogy is Thomas¹, John², Thomas³, John⁴, John⁵, Thomas⁶, William⁷ m. Sarah Fisher. It can be seen on the charts for genealogy 169 that the DNA test for a descendant of Uriah Noah Graves (a son of William) matches that for the descendants of Francis Graves and also matches that for descendants of Thomas Sims Graves (genealogy 94), who was previously thought to be a son of this William Graves. It appears that Uriah Noah Graves is probably a brother of Thomas Sims Graves, and both are sons of a William Graves. The birth date of William Graves has been given as about 1755 by some researchers and about 1776 by others, and he has been listed with different wives and different children. The most likely answer to this confusion is that there are two different men named William Graves. We need to separate the two families and perform DNA testing on any lines that are still questionable. Again, your help will be needed.

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ABOUT THIS BULLETIN:

This bulletin is written and edited by Kenneth V. Graves, ken.graves@gravesfa.org. Ken Graves was also editor of the Graves Family Newsletter (no longer published). This bulletin will contain announcements and news of special interest to Graves descendants with Internet access. It will not contain queries, genealogies, photos, and the kind of in-depth articles that used to appear in the Graves Family Newsletter.

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 via PayPal by going to www.paypal.com and sending payment to gfa@gravesfa.org. Benefits include access to the “members only” section of the website, membership directory, and help with learning more about your Graves/Greaves family. The purpose of the GFA is to bring together as many descendants as possible to work toward learning more about the Graves/Greaves families, to help other descendants, and to instill pride in our ancestry.

COPYRIGHTS:

Although the contents of this bulletin are copyrighted by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves, you are hereby granted rights, unless otherwise specified, to re-distribute articles to other parties for non-commercial purposes only. Do not re-distribute the newsletter in its entirety.

TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE TO THIS BULLETIN:

To subscribe to this bulletin, send an e-mail message to ken.graves@gravesfa.org. Please include your full name. Your postal mailing address and information on your Graves/Greaves ancestry would also be appreciated, although not essential.

To remove your name from this subscription list, send an e-mail message to ken.graves@gravesfa.org asking to be removed.