Family Historian - Arkansas Genealogical Society

69
IN SEARCH OF MY ROOTS
By. Jean Noel Cash, Sr.
When my mother passed away in 1953 I realized how very
little I knew of my family history, especially of the paternal
(Cash) side, therefore I was determined to search out
the family history, beginning with the paternal side, since
I believed it would be the hardest in that I knew practically
nothing about any of my ancestors. My father had died when
I was only three and his father had died when he was only
four, therefore the normal means of learning about your ancestors
was not open to either of us. The only things known by
any member of my family were. (1) OUr grand-parents were
Anderson and Elvira Johnson Cash, (2) Our great-grandfather
was Isham Cash, (3) Our grand-father had brothers known as
"Bud" and ".Med", (4) The Cash family had moved to Clark County,
Arkansas from somewhere in the South.
After a few feeble attempts in 1953, I discovered I had
neither the time, money or determination necessary to carry
out my mission and therefore forgot about the project until
1970, by which time I owned my own business and had the time
and money that was required, but still not the determination.
In May 1970, I received a telephone call from my neice, Mrs.
Myrna Sue Cash McCabe, of Elmira, New York. She asked that
I send "everything I knew of the Cash family." This was the
incentive I needed.
I went to the D.A.R. Library in Tulsa, Oklahoma where a
nice lady loaned me a "How To" book on Genealogy. I began a
search of every Volume this Library had on Virginia, the
Carolinas, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, and
wrote down every scrap of information on any Cash mentioned.
I then went to the Arkansas History Commission in Little
Rock and began a search of the filmed census they had there.
The 1880, 1870 and 1860 Census of Clark County showed that my
great-grandfather, Isham Cash, was born in North Carolina and
so were the first five of his children, born ca 1837-1844.
The next two were shown as born Tennessee ca 1847-50, and the
last three born Arkansas ca 1851-58. I therefore concluded,
correctly as it turned out, that great-grandfather Isham had
been born in North Carolina ca 1814, lived there until ca 1845,
moved to Tennessee and lived there until ca 1851, and then
moved to Clark county, Arkansas ca 1851 and died there after
1880. Since my notes showed that there were so many Cash
Families living in Tennessee, I decided to skip the 1850 census
and go to the 1840 Census of North Carolina, because my notes
indicated that only one county in North Carolina showed Cahs's
living there - Granville County. After only a few minutes of
reading the 1840 Granville county, North Carolina Census, I
found great-grandfather, Isham Cash listed by name, living in
"Dutch District." I then read every Census of Granville
County from 1790-1830 and Gopied down every Cash listed,
I had now increased my knowledge to include the names of
all my grand-uncles and aunts and where in the South they