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. 4, No. 5, Nov. 19, 2001

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Information on how to start a free subscription to this bulletin and 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.

Visit the GFA web site at http://www.gravesfa.org

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CONTENTS:

**DNA Analysis Project

**When You Change Your E-Mail Address

**To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things

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DNA ANALYSIS PROJECT

I am pleased to report that one project is ahead of schedule. The results for the first batch of 45 samples was received this weekend. Two of the original batch of 47 samples had missing data and are being retested.

Apparently the individual reports that will be provided by the testing laboratory (Family Tree DNA) will not be sent to me until all tests are complete. As soon as I receive them, I will send them to the participants. However, you can see your result (if you remember your sample number) by looking at the results summary on the Graves Family Association website. If you have forgotten your number, ask me and I will tell you what it is.

To look at the results summary and the preliminary conclusions, you can go to the website at http://www.gravesfa.org and click on the DNA link at the top of the page. Or you can go directly to that specific page at http://www.gravesfa.org/DNA_test_results.html.

The preliminary results include:

(1) It is apparent that there are multiple ancestors for the Graves, Greaves, Grieve, etc. families. The number of ancestors will have to await further testing and analyses.

(2) It is also apparent that many participants are descended from a common ancestor. In some cases, it was completely unexpected that families were related.

(3) One of the most surprising results is that the families of John Graves of Concord, MA (166), Rear Admiral Thomas Graves of Charlestown, MA (28), and John Greaves of St. Mary's Co., MD (247) seem to be part of the same family. An even more surprising part of that group are the families of Blount Co., AL (98, 102, 262). It has always been believed that those families were descended from Capt. Thomas Graves of VA (169).

(4) Another surprising and puzzling result is for the family of Capt. Thomas Graves of VA (169). The results are more scattered then expected, and no firm conclusions can be drawn until we get more data.

The additional samples still to be tested will help resolve some of the questions. If you have not yet returned your samples, please do so as soon as possible.

More testing will be needed for some of the families already participating in the study. For the Capt. Thomas Graves of VA family, we will need more participants from different branches of the family to resolve some of the questions we have. For the group of results that includes John Graves of Concord, Rear Adm. Thomas Graves, John Greaves of St. Mary’s Co., and the Blount Co., AL families, we may need to use the additional testing that Family Tree DNA now offers (an additional 9 test points can be added to the 12 in the basic test) to further determine a more specific connection between descendants.

In addition, other families still need to be included in the study. There is a list of families participating in the DNA study on the GFA website. There is also a list of some of the families that we would like to see added to the list. Families needed include:

**Graves Family of Yorkshire and Mickleton Manor, Gloucestershire, England (68)

**Greaves Family of Beeley, Derbyshire, England (228)

**George Graves of Plaistow, England (64)

**Other families of the British Isles, especially including families of Grieve, Grieves, Greve, and other spellings

**Graves families of Netherlands, France and elsewhere

**John Graves (Johann Sebastian Graff) of PA, NC & TN (105)

**Joseph Graves and Rachel Pratt of Framingham, MA (133)

**Richard Graves and Polly Lucy of SC & AR (189)

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E-MAIL ADDRESS AND POSTAL MAILING ADDRESS FOR KEN GRAVES

I used to have a couple of other e-mail addresses, including one on AOL. I now have only one address, ken.graves@gravesfa.org. Also, we moved to another house in the same town more than 2 years ago. However, I occasionally find that people have tried to contact me at my old address. Please be sure to use the correct addresses. If you forget, you can always look on the GFA website. Thanks.

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WHEN YOU CHANGE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS

People change e-mail addresses much more frequently than they move or change telephone numbers. Please let me know when you get a new e-mail address. Very often I find information of interest to someone and then I can’t contact them to let them know the good news.

On a similar subject, if you have not let me know your postal mailing address, it would be a good idea to do that. At least I could then contact you be regular mail when e-mail contact is lost.

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ABOUT THIS BULLETIN:

This bulletin is written and edited by Kenneth V. Graves, ken.graves@gravesfa.org. Ken Graves is also editor of the Graves Family Newsletter, the official publication of the Graves Family Association. 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 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 (for U.S. & Canada) or $30 per year (for all other countries) to Graves Family Association, 20 Binney Circle, Wrentham, MA 02093 (more details on GFA website). Note that membership is for a calendar year so if you join late in the year be sure to specify which year dues are for. Benefits include 6 issues of the newsletter, 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.