How the MosesReunion.org site began
as told by Jack Moses

You might wonder how this genealogy website came about. The idea grew over a number of years. I live near Binghamton NY, just 15 miles or so from the original Moses Homestead and have attended many of the annual Moses reunions, many of them as its President or other officer. As opportunities arose over the last few generations, many people left this area and traveled to new places for careers and to raise their families, much like our pioneering ancestors did. Some still travel to the annual Moses reunion from afar, but not many. Some have their own extended family gatherings. Some we have lost track of altogether.

In 1961, my grandfather Everett Moses finished compiling a genealogy book of the Moses family with historical notes. Perhaps you own or have seen a copy of the book. It has always been a goal of mine to update the genealogy but it seemed a daunting task to locate and document the generation or two born since 1961. People relocate frequently theses days and I would expect limited sucess.

That being said, it made sense that a website, available to everybody online, would serve both the purpose of finding everyone (or letting them find us) and letting all share in our common heritage. Just one problem though, I knew nothing about building websites.

So, when I mailed the annual Moses Reunion Announcements during the last couple years I asked if anyone would be interested in helping with this project. That's when things started happening. I received an e-mail from Linda Miller, an announcement recipient in Columbus Ohio whom I had never met, saying she would be interested in this type of project and could help out. Then, this year, regular reunion attendees Doug and Helen Webb mentioned that their son Doug Jr, had done some website work before and suggested I talk with him. He had already put a family website together for a branch of his family and he had moved the "JOHN MOSES CIVIL WAR DIARIES" onto that site (you will recognize it on our site too). Doug was very much interested in helping out, and he was by profession a computer expert too.

Doug Webb researched the various genealogy web programs and was instrumental in building the one you see now. Doug also provided most of the horsepower to make it look like it does today and provided all the data entry from Everett Moses' original genealogy book. After that Herculean effort, Doug entered the roughly 400 entries I had provided in the form of updates from a survey I had included with the reunion announcements several years ago. Linda Miller typed many of the historical notes from Everett's book that you see on this site.

Doug Webb and I joked that the easy work is now done! That's because there is so much more information needed to bring the genealogy up to date, and we are now out of information. This is where you can help! Send your updates and news to mosesreunion@yahoo.com


Jack and Doug at a website meeting at Doug's office


Linda Miller was instrumental in adding historical notes to the website. She was also the 2004 recipient of the award given each year for the person who traveled farthest to attend the Moses Reunion.
rev. 3/10/16