Surname Saturday: Cash

     My Cash family line starts with two sister: Elizabeth and Sarah Cash.  Both were my Fourth Great Grandmothers, as their descendants would eventually marry and bring the line back together.  Thus, I am twice over a Cash descendant.

     Elizabeth and Sarah Cash's parents were Moses Cash (abt 1785, VA - 1846, GA) and Nancy Hudson (abt 1790-1823, GA), who were married on 6 Sep 1808 in Elbert County, Georgia.  The couple had many children, among them Moses Reuben Cash, the ancestor of singer Johnny Cash (making him my 3rd cousin, 3x removed).  Moses had come south from Virginia with his parents, John Cash (1757, VA - 1836, GA) and Lucy Campbell (1760, VA - 1848, GA).  

     John Cash was born in Amherst County, Virginia and enlisted there in 1776 to become part of the Cherokee Expedition (against Cherokee who were allied with the British) during the Revolution.  I'm currently trying to join the DAR through this ancestor.

     I can trace back one more generation on this line, to Stephen Cash and Jemima Grinning, also of Virginia.

     A map of modern day surname distribution shows that the Cash name is still popular in Amherst County (http://publicprofiler.org).  My direct ancestors might have moved on, but many of their descendants stayed put.

     One thing thats' great about this line is that it is backed up by DNA!  I have four different DNA matches on my Cash line.  In the chart here, you can see three of those matches (from ftDNA) and the DNA that they share with my dad, though none of them are on the same segment.  Yay!

   

A Guardianship Question

     I found this document on FamilySearch.org in alphabetized Estate Records for Elbert County.  I'm confused by it and hoping someone can provide some insight.

     I'm reading that John Craft Sr is being made guardian of John Craft Jr and Willis Craft, sons of John Craft Sr.  Is this record giving guardian ship of a father to his sons, or are there two John Craft Seniors? Where John Craft Sr is named as the father, the words "late of said county, deceased" are crossed out, indicating that he is alive.  But why does a father need to be named guardian?  This record is in the Estate Records; is he becoming guardian of property they have inherited?

Unexpected Land

     I recently found some estate records for my 5x Great-Grandfather, William R Powell of Elbert County, Georgia, on FamilySearch.org. One interesting item is shown above: though William lived in, and owned land in, Elbert County, he also owned land in Muscogee and Cherokee Counties.

     As you can see from this map from 1838, none of these counties are close to each other. Elbert County is in purple, with Cherokee County over 100 miles west. Muscogee County is almost 200 miles south west.

     How did he get this land? My best guess is in return for military service (the War of 1812?) or possibly through inheritance. I'll have to do more research in each area and find out.

Tombstone Tuesday - The Evans Family Plot

     This is the Evans family plot at the Rock Branch Baptist Church in Elbert County, Georgia. Buried in this plot are, from left to right, Harriett Partain Evans and William A Evans (3x Great Grandparents),  Leila Craft Evans Brown and John Evans (2x Great Grandparents),  Ethel Evans (daughter of Leila and John), Leila Evans (daughter of Harriett and William), Luther Evans (daughter of Leila and John). At the end of this row is another grave, one that may or may not belong in the Evans plot. I can't read the stone:

Here are the other stones in the plot:

 

Wordless Wednesday

And This Is Why You Can't Believe Everything You Read

     I found this article in "The Hartwell Sun," published in Hartwell, Georgia 1920. It references my 4x Great Grandfather, Willis Craft, and his ancestors.  It states that his descendants can trace his family back about 150 years to a Miss Washington, the sister of George Washington. Yes, this article claims that the Crafts of Elbert County are related to our nation's first President. So, is it true?

     According to this article, the information is "said to be authentic and published as a bit of history without the knowledge of the Craft family." Well that doesn't bode well.

     But what about the facts themselves? Did the unnamed Miss Washington marry Griffin Craft?  In this situation, it would obviously be much easier to trace down the tree from George than up the tree from me.  It should be pretty easy to find out who his sisters were and who they married.  Turns out George Washington had only one sister who lived to adulthood, and she did not marry a Craft. Betty Washington married Fielding Lewis and it looks like none of their daughters married a Craft either.

     There could be some hint of truth in the article somewhere. Perhaps there is a Miss Washington in the family tree - just not one with such a famous brother. Or perhaps there is some other connection to the Washington family - through Mrs. Martha Washington's family perhaps?  There has to be some sort of basis for this story. But that could be only that someone wanted to invent a famous connection...

     Even if there is some small smidgen of truth buried somewhere in this story the boldly stated facts are patently false. You just can't believe everything you read.

In Which I Am Chased By Dogs

     Yesterday I went on a road trip to Elbert County, Georgia, which is about 80 miles from where I live. My Craft family ancestors lived here from at least 1800 until my Grandfather moved away in the early 1950s.  I hoped to find two new graves, visit some previously known ones, see my Great-Grandparent's house, and go to the local library.  I won't go into too many details but will hit the highlights... and this'll still be long!

     First: Gas is way too expensive but I tracked it and I got 29.7 miles per gallon. I'll consider that a win.

     Second: It's not an adventure until you get lost at least once. Though with my sister's GPS were never actually got lost - we just ended up doing some things out of order.

     Third: My Great-Grandparent's former house. I don't know who lives there now, but they have a little Chihuahua type dog that likes to chase cars down the road. It's a small house, but when I showed the photo to my dad he confirmed it was the correct one.

     Fourth: Rock Branch Baptist Church. Apparently my Craft ancestors were considered part of the "Rock Branch Community" of Elbert County though they were a five minute walk from Hart County. I'd been to this cemetery years ago, before I realized just how many of my ancestors were buried here. This time I got all the headstone photos (I hope). Here, I'm posing with William Anderson Craft's grave.

     Fifth: The Elbert County Public Library. They have a pretty darn good genealogy section (and a bathroom!). They had a book about the Craft family, but it seemed to be some random OK/AR branch that had nothing to do with me. I did find a few books on the Powell and Taylor families. One of these is a book available on Google in "snippet" view, so it was nice to be able to see the whole book. I was also hoping to use the library records to find the grave of Willis Craft (1809-1874). I think he's buried on his old land. The library did have a cemetery book with a map showing his grave, but there weren't any roads in the area on the map. Given my time constraints, I figured I'd try to find the grave another day.

     Sixth: Montevideo is pronounced Mount Video.

     Seventh: Craft Road. We headed back to my Great-Grandparent's house which sits on a road named after them. I got out to pose with the street sign. Apparently I took too long and the dogs across the street took offense. I had eight (8!!!) dogs heading toward me so I ran back to the car (where everyone else already was). Apparently the look on my face was priceless.

 

     Eighth: We went to Cokesbury UMC where my Great-Great Craft Grandparents are buried. I was also hoping to find the grave of an infant G-Uncle, but no luck

     Ninth: The Georgia Guidestones. This was the touristy part of our trip. These are some random stones put up by an anonymous person with some strange message about population and nature. I think they just found the price of granite in "the granite capital of the world" too hard to resist and decided to have some fun (joking). They're pretty neat.

     Tenth: The email waiting for me at home. But that's another post because this one is too long already!

Tombstone Tuesday - Evans

     Ethel Evans was the daughter of John and Leila Evans of Elbert County, Georgia. She was born on 6 Mar 1907 and died on 5 Dec 1911. She was buried in the Rock Branch Baptist Church Cemetery in Elbert County, Georgia, next to her parents.

Surname Saturday - Craft

My Craft family line spends most of its time in Elbert and Hart Counties of Georgia and makes an occasional appearance in Anderson County, South Carolina. I've traced this line back to Willis Craft, born 1809 in Elbert County. Other researcher's information suggest that his parents may have been John Craft and Mary Moss. I have not seen the documentation that suggests this.

Willis Craft married Martha T. Franklin on 26 Nov 1832 in Morgan County, Georgia. They had a number of children, including Mary, John Franklin, William Anderson, Willis Moss, Martha A, James D, Terrah A, and Richard P.

Willis was a merchant and a farmer and represented Elbert County in the Georgia State House from 1857 - 1858. He died on 21 March 1874 in Elbert County.

My line follows his son William, who married Rossie Alexander. Their son, George Robert "Bob" Craft, was my Great-Great Grandfather. He married Effie Verona Powell and moved to Birmingham, Alabama in their later years. Their son, Bennie Craft, married Sally Ruth Evans and they were the parent's of my Grandfather, Thomas S. Craft.

SNGF - Wish List

For tonight's SNGF, we've been asked to give a genealogy database that we'd like to see made available online.

For myself, I'd love to see the Elberton Star and Hartwell Sun newspapers go online. These newspapers cover neighboring Elbert and Hart Counties, GA from the late 1800s on. These newspapers have been microfilmed and can be accessed (that I know of) in their native counties. I do not see them available through family history libraries (but I could be searching wrong?). I've had helpful volunteers look up obituaries from these newspapers for me, but I don't want to burden volunteers with hundreds of look-up requests. If these two newspapers went online, it would be a goldmine for me.

Tombstone Tuesday - Craft

Martha Franklin Craft was born in Georgia in 1809 and died in 1880. She was the wife of Willis Craft. They lived together in Craftville, Elbert County, GA. I descend from their son, William A. Craft. Martha is buried at Rock Branch Baptist Church Cemetery in Elbert County, GA.

Tombstone Tuesday - Powell

Maria (or Mariah) Powell was born 5 Aug 1821, probably in South Carolina. She married farmer Wiley Powell of Elbert County, GA. Together they had at least 10 children, including my ancestor, John Franklin Powell. In 1864, Wiley died of disease while fighting in the Civil War. Mariah lived on and left behind documentation in pension applications. She died on 6 Feb 1912 in Elbert County at age 90. She is buried in Rock Branch Cemetery in Elbert County, next to a memorial marker of her husband.

Tombstone Tuesday - Evans

"Little" Luther Evans is buried near his parents at Rock Branch Baptist Church in Elbert County, Georgia. He was the son of my Great-Great Grandparents, John H. and Leila Frances (Craft?) Evans. He was 1 year and 294 days old when he died on 28 June 1905.

GA Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

A valuable resource for those researching in Georgia, is the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collection. The collection is made up of colorful maps from 1867-1970 that depict mostly cities and town from across the county.

The Georgia collection is available online from two sources: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1884-1922 (Free) and Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 (ProQuest subscription required).

Navigating the images is made easy by an "index" map. When viewing a city's index map, you can click on a part of that map to view a particular section of the city. You can navigate from section to section, exploring streets and buildings. Streets will include address numbers and buildings may include information about the business, building materials, number of floors and any other information that might be of importance to firemen. Make sure to check out the map's Key, Seal and Index page for more information.

For example, see: Elberton, GA in 1885 and 1922. In 1885, according to the seal there was a population of 1,000, no Steam or Hand Engines and water facilities were "not good." By 1922 there was a population of 7,000 with 4 firemen on duty at all times and a detailed description of a complex water system. This can be very valuable information for understanding where our ancestor came from.

Tombstone Tuesday - Craft

Bennie and Sally Ruth (Evans) Craft are my paternal Great-Grandparents. They lived their lives in Elbert and Hart Counties, Georgia. They are buried at the Rock Branch Baptist Church in Elbert County, Georgia, along with just about all of their direct ancestors.

at the library

Today Mom & I went down to the Fulton County Library, Central Branch. This branch has a genealogy special collections section up on the fifth floor. I'd done a little bit a little bit of research before going and hoped to find some information on my Elbert County, GA ancestors. Unfortunately, aside from a few marriage records, I didn't find much on this side of the family.

However, I did find some interested information on some Atlanta ancestors. Mom pursued the Atlanta City Directories for our Waters family ancestors. Some things we discovered:

• Leverett & Louise & their family never lived in the same house two years in a row!
• Ruby Waters Huyler Whitfield Huyler stayed with her first married name from her marriage in 1930 through to 1936. She was married to Cecil Whitfield by the time the 1937 directory was published. But, by 1948 she had remarried her first husband and was again Mrs. Ruby Huyler. (we never really knew the dates for her second marriage and subsequent remarriage to her first husband).
• The sisters Ruby & Alma Waters were living with their parents in 1931 - even though I can't find them in the 1930 census. Alma was married and not listed with her husband and Ruby is not yet married.

I hope to go back soon to pursue more directories. The only limitation: $12 parking and 60 miles there and back is mucho gas $$$.