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Future GFA Reunions

The following meetings were held the last week in January. Ken Graves was the speaker at all the events. These were small meetings with plenty of opportunity to ask questions and discuss your Graves/Greaves family and ancestry. No matter what your Graves/Greaves ancestry is, you are cordially invited to attend. There will also be DNA testing kits available, so any men with the Graves (or variation) surname will be able to take a Y-DNA test at the meeting.

  • Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008, noon to 3:00 p.m., at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, VA. This will be a regular meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the GFA. There will be a light buffet in the meeting room as attendees assemble. Ken Graves will talk about “Graves and Greaves Families from Europe to America: What we know and what we need to find”. For more information, contact John Graves at 443-542-2860 (work), 410-867-6758 (home), or at johngtmti@aol.com.
  • Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008, 12 noon-2:30 p.m., Yancey House Restaurant, 699 US Highway 158 West, Yanceyville, Caswell Co., NC, phone 339-694-4225. The gathering will start with attendees ordering brunch from the New Orleans Jazz Brunch menu (items ranging from $2.00 to $25.00). After the conversation during the brunch, there will be an informal presentation and Q&A.
    The heart of YanceyVillage is the Bartlett Yancey House built in 1807 by one of North Carolina's greatest and most beloved statesmen. The home sits on a spacious 153-acre estate west of Yanceyville and is surrounded by the original smokehouse, a Federal period law office, and probably the largest tobacco barn in North Carolina. East of the house is the Yancey family graveyard, where Bartlett Yancey and his descendents are buried. The house was opened in Nov. 2006 as the Yancey House Restaurant.
    This is actually the house of Bartlett Yancey, Jr., born 19 Feb. 1785 and died in 1828, son of Bartlett Yancey and Ann Graves (daughter of John Graves and Isabella Lea). He married his cousin, Nancy Graves, daughter of John Herndon Graves and Nancy Slade. Among his accomplishments, he was speaker of the NC State Senate and a member of the U.S. Congress, 1813-1817. This is a branch of the part of the Capt. Thomas Graves of VA family (gen. 169) nominally descended through John2, Thomas3, John4, but actually from Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, England (gen. 47), which is the line of both Ken Graves and Clark Graves who is helping to organize this meeting.
    Contact Ken Graves for more information.
  • Tuesday, Jan. 29, 7:00 p.m., Charlotte, NC, at the home of Will Graves, 211 Towill Place, Charlotte, NC. This is in southeastern Charlotte. Turning off Randolph Rd. onto North Canterbury Rd., Towill Place is the first road on the left, and 211 is on the corner.
  • Thursday, Jan. 31, 7:00- 8:30 p.m., in the Henderson Room, 2nd floor, Main Library, Leon County Public Library, 200 West Park Ave., Tallahassee, FL, phone 850-606-2615. The library has a parking lot accessible from Call St. and Duvall St.

For more information about any of these gatherings, contact Ken Graves at 508-384-8084 (until Jan. 25) or 508-364-5217 (cell phone, from Jan. 25 and after), or email ken.graves@gravesfa.org.

Differences between National Reunions and Regional Reunions
The two most obvious differences between these two types of events are:

  1. Regional Reunions usually last for only part of a day. They include a meeting and sometimes a meal. National Reunions usually last 2 or 3 days, usually on a weekend.
  2. A special effort is made to notify and invite all Graves/Greaves descendants everywhere for National Reunions, whereas the emphasis is more on inviting people from the area to a Regional Reunion.

Who is invited?
All Graves/Greaves descendants and family members are always invited and welcomed to all Graves Family Association gatherings.

Does anything else happen in conjunction with these gatherings?
Yes. When the reunion is held in conjunction with a genealogical conference, there may be a GFA booth in the exhibit hall that will be staffed by GFA members. All interested people are invited to stop by, talk to the people at the booth, and ask any research or family questions they may have.

Other Traditional Graves Family Reunions

There are many Graves/Greaves family reunions of all sizes and types that are held in many parts of the U.S. and other countries. Many of these are held each year, often at the same time. If you let us know about these, we will post them here.

Future reunions
Send information about your planned reunions to Ken Graves

  • April 26, 2008 - Graves-Spiers-Williams reunion for all descendants of David Rice Graves (genealogy 270) at Ono Grange Hall, Ono, Shasta, CA. For more information, contact Emma L. Erickson, 3353 NW Crest Dr., Corvallis, OR 97330, 541-753-4329, email Emma Erickson.
  • July 18-20, 2008 - Reunion of all descendants of Paschal Graves (8th generation descendant of Capt. Thomas Graves, genealogy 169) at Graves Mountain Lodge, Syria, VA. Jim and Rachel Graves, owners of Graves’ Mountain Lodge in Syria, VA, will be hosting the reunion at the lodge. To let them know of your interest or for questions, contact them or Sharon S. Carter at Graves’ Mountain Lodge, Route 670, Syria, VA 22743, phone 1-800-420-4231 or 540-923-4231.
  • Aug. 1-3, 2008 - Keck Reunion. This is also for related families, including the Graves family descended from John Graves (Johann Sebastian Graff), genealogy 105. In this family there have been many Graves-Keck marriages, the earliest being Solomon Graves (b. 1797) who married Charity Keck. For more information, contact Billy G. McBride, Jr., 1302 15th St., Galveston, TX 77550, email Billy McBride.

FUTURE TRIPS

May 2009 (tentative date) - The Graves Family Association will be conducting a tour of England and Ireland. This will consist of a combination of expertly guided tours of Graves/Greaves homes and towns, historic places and scenic sights, and visits with local family members.

The tour of England will be the main attraction, since the origin of all the Graves/Greaves families of both Ireland and England is believed to be the area of southern Yorkshire and the northern parts of Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. This will be about 10 days. Some of the places we may be visiting are Mickleton in Gloucestershire, Moseley in Worcestershire, various places in Yorkshire, Bakewell & Beeley in Derbyshire, Horbling, Drayton & Kirkton in Lincolnshire, Hertford in Hertfordshire, Nazeing in Essex, and London.

We hope to have noted expert George Redmonds escort us in Yorkshire again. We also hope to have at least two afternoons or evenings where family members from the local area gather with us.

The tour of Ireland will be an option. It will be several days, and will include Waterford, Wexford, Dublin and Meath, and possibly Limerick. It will also probably include Tyrone and Londonderry in Northern Ireland.

More information will be provided well in advance of the trip. Cost of our previous trip in 1995 was $2375 per person double occupancy plus airfare. If you have questions about this trip or would like to help plan or conduct it, contact Ken Graves. To get a better idea of what these trips are like, take a look at the 1995 trip summary.