Our History

A Cursory History of the Martins, Thomases and Dorseys

Revised for The Occasion of the 20th Family Reunion

Jackson, Mississippi

July 2026

This essay is the 19th or 20th revision of a short history that began as essentially a history of the descendants of Mose (not a typo; his name was Mose, not Moses) Martin written for the July 1991 reunion of the Martin, Thomas, and Dorsey families held in Mound Bayou/Cleveland, Mississippi. Substantial changes were made for the reunion held in St. Louis in July of 1992; those revisions brought in more history on the Dorsey’s, Thomas’s and Grahams. Since the Grahams are subsumed under the Dorsey’s (Harriet Graham is the daughter of Joanna Dorsey), the Graham name has been dropped from the title. Therefore, this history has been modified to reflect that change. Secondly additional changes have been made over the years as new information has been made available to the author.

View the entire history here.