The Morse Society
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The Morse Society |
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Welcome to the Morse Society website
he mission of The
Morse Society is to gather, organize and disseminate genealogical
and historical information pertaining to
North American Morse and Moss
progenitors, their ancestors and their descendents, including those
with variant spelling such as Morss and Mors. We started documenting
our family lines in the mid-1800s, so our archives contain over 150
years of meticulous research. Our extensive databases focus on five
New England progenitor lines, as well as current and pre-immigrant
lines in the UK,
Canada and Australia. The progenitor
lines include Anthony Morse of Newbury, MA (1635), William Morse of
Newbury, MA (1635),
Samuel Morse of Dedham, MA (1635),
Joseph Morse of Ipswich, MA (1635), and John Moss of New Haven, CT
(1639).
ur families started coming to
North America
in 1635, from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany,
Russia,
Holland, Norway,
and other far flung places. Some brought the surname with them and some changed
their names after arriving. Clans settled in Canada,
New England, the mid-Atlantic, and the Southeastern
states. Some came as free men while others arrived as
indentured servants,
but all came to start a new life in the new world. No matter where your Morse or
Moss family came from or where they put down roots, your family is part of our
family. Please come back often to see what new features we've added since your
last visit.
Help us welcome Pat McChesney as our new Convention Chairperson and Chelsea Sirtola as our Secretary.
Pat McChesney has been a Morse Society member since 2001, and has handled the merchandise sales at several MS Conventions. She recently sold her house and is moving to join her daughter’s family. She is also looking forward to Carl’s trip to Europe in May. Those two activities will keep her busy until mid-May, so Lisa & Marcia will be helping her successfully navigate the transition. Pat is an avid reader (especially history) and is passionate about genealogy. She is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and is actively involved with her two granddaughters, ages 6 and 3.
A new MS member, Chelsea Sirtola has two young children (ages 4 and 7) and an entrepreneurial spirit that turned a tropical fish hobby into a thriving business. She raises shell-dwelling cichlids that she imported directly from Lake Tanganyika, she is a ‘whiz’ at buying/selling online, and she looks forward to learning the finer points of database management. Serving as our Secretary will provide Chelsea with an opportunity to expand her resume while volunteering alongside her mom, our President.
Feel free to sent them a welcome at the Convention chair address for Pat, and Secretary chair address for Chelsea!
By
Phillip Wright
Extra, extra, read all about it …
… three weeks sooner than the mailed copy.
The electronic version of the Morse Society's newsletter goes up on the
Web site's Forum the same time that it goes to the printer, the event that kicks
off the eventual arrival of the black and white hard copy in your mailbox.
But did you know there is a feature in the Forum software that
automatically notifies you when a new message, including the newsletter message
is posted? Open up any category or
thread and look for the “Notify” button.
One click and you will receive an email telling you of the latest query
post, announcement, or newsletter post.
Detailed instructions on this feature will be available soon in the
Website Information topic in The Morse Society Forum.
And while you are enjoying your electronic version in living color,
please consider “going green” and choose to go “electronic only” when you renew
your membership.
Vine Lake Preservation Trust partnership
Our Merchandise Manager, Pat McChesney, brought it to the
Board's attention that a trust had been formed to “preserve, enhance, interpret,
and celebrate Medfield's historic Vine Lake Cemetery,” better known to us as the
home of The Morse Memorial. A quick
inquiry revealed that the Trust's president is Rob Gregg, who oversaw the
repairs to The Morse Memorial in 2008.
We also learned of the many programs, guided tours, and restoration
workshops being offered and agreed the work of the trust was worthy of our
support and encouragement, in keeping with our status as a charitable
organization. Accordingly, the
Board voted in September to establish a program of matching small contributions
of $25 or less up to an aggregate of $250 per calendar year, renewable each year
by our Board.
By offering a
matching challenge, we will be
encouraging small contributors to support the Trust and hopefully become engaged
with the great programs being offered.
Rob Gregg has offered to report back on how our funds are being used and
bring to our attention Morse related opportunities for future collaboration.
Watch for future reports in The Morse Society Newsletter and on
MorseSociety.org.
We encourage you to visit the Vine Lake preservation Trust Web site,
http://www.vinelakepreservationtrust.org/.
You
can also write to the Trust at VLPT, PO Box 266, Medfield, MA 02052.
If you live in the Medfield area or are planning a trip through the area,
be sure to check out the calendar of programs & events under the About the Trust
menu. Please consider adding your
support by making a donation, large or small, and mention The Morse Society
Support your Library
We are pleased to announce that two of our members funded the
donation of our reprints of the Memorial of the Morses and The Morse
Genealogy 1903/1905 Support Your Library program (see the page 1
story in the Spring 2009 issue).
The Brown Memorial Library in
Bradford, NH and the Willard Library in Evansville IN now have copies of those
volumes in their collection courtesy of Society members George P. Morse and
James E. Morse respectively. Please
consider adding your names to this list by donating a 2 volume set for $52.50 or
purchasing a one year (4 issue) newsletter subscription for $12 with the order
form in this issue.
problems or suggestions, contact:
Morse Society Webmaster
©2009 Morse Society
a 501(c)(3) organization