A new beginning: Bringing back the past

Back in a time before the personal computer, cell phones, and e-mails a small group of people in Cass County who were interested in their heritage got together to research their history, their ancestry, and their connection to Cass County and Northeast Texas.

In the fall of 1973 this group of people formed the Cass County Genealogical Society dedicated to the collection of the information needed to create family trees, establish ancestral history, and record the pattern of family migration.

This research all took place prior to the advent of the on-line websites of Ancestory.com , FamilySearch.org, FindAGrave.com, Archives.gov , and the dozens of other genealogical websites that are now available.

The research was done by searching thru hundreds of pages of census records, old newspapers and their obituary columns, the written histories of the area, old church records, and old family bibles with recorded family histories. As this accumulation of data grew it was determined that it would be necessary to store this data for easy access by the public, so an arrangement was with the Atlanta Public Library to create the Family History and Genealogy Section of the library.

As the knowledge the organization grew many people from near and far requested help with their family search so an arrangement with the Atlanta Citizens Journal was made to run the societies’ Cass County Cousins column weekly, or as space permited, detailing the questions regarding peoples family history, and occasional tidbits on local Northeast Texas history.

It began back in late 1973 about the time the Society was formed and ran regularly from December 1973 to June 1977, lapsed for a while and began again in July 1979, running until February 1983.

At that time, we stopped writing the column, but resumed in December 1992 and ran to 2001.

As the years went by the society grew, as did its’ collection of historical and genealogical information. The society maintains a massive vertical files collection of Cass County church, ‘school and family histories, a large collection of books on the U.S. states especially those states that border Northeast Texas, – Arkansas, Louisiana, & Oklahoma. The Best collection in the Ark-La-Tex of Native American.

African American and Oklahoma research material. A huge map collection of antique and newer maps. This collection includes the Texas General Land Office survey map of Cass County with ownership up unto 1953.

We also maintain a large collection of newspapers on microfilm of old Atlanta, Linden, Jefferson & Clarksville newspapers. As well as early tax rolls on microfilm of Cass, Bowie and Marion Counties. A collection of school yearbooks for Atlanta, Queen City, McLeod, Linden and Texarkana College.

A large military collection including the 100 + volume set of the Correspondence of the War of the Rebellion (Civil War). And many DAR lineages books and other DAR material.

In the 1990’s the society took on the task of recording and indexing all of the graves in all of the cemeteries in and around Cass County and created a nine volume set of books that is the go-to source for researching families that lived and died in Cass County.

The Society has also amassed a twenty-six-volume set of indexed obituaries from 1862 to the present collected from the local newspapers. These obituaries provide a wealth of genealogical information about the relatives of the deceased.

Over the last forty-five years the society has published hundreds of quarterly and biannual journals full of information about the people and history of Cass County that they provide, for free, to their members.

As well as numerous history books about the history of the local people and the history and records of the local churches.

Once again, the society has agreed to provide the publisher of the Atlanta Citizens Journal and the Cass County Sun with the information to publish a weekly column to be printed when space is available under the heading of CASS COUNTY COUSINS 2020.