Joe Cabaniss'
genealogy
genealogy
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A Little History of Cabaniss in America
The Cabaniss surname has been in America since the French Huguenot Henri Cabaniss, along with wife Marie and their infant son, Henry, stepped off the ship Mary and Ann in Virginia in July, 1700. Henri's wife died about a year later and Henri remarried, but the marriage was apparently childless. Henri's second wife died, after which he remarried, and before his ca. 1720 death, Henri had two sons, Matthew and George, by this third wife. (By the way, who were the parents of Henri Cabaniss?)
The Cabaniss genealogy has been the subject of several publications:
- Cabaniss Through Four Generations: Some Descendants of Matthew and George, ©1969, 1970, 1971, by Allen Cabaniss.
- Henry Cabaniss and His Descendants, compiled 1956, by John Plath Green.
- Henry Cavinis, The Immigrant Infant and Some of his Descendants, ©1971, by Alloa Caviness Anderson.
- The Family of George Cabaniss, ©1999, by Laura Jane Cabaniss Walters and William Boyd Walters.
The first two books have been out
of print for years, but Mrs. Anderson's book is into another
printing. Having been out of print for so long, the works of
Allen Cabaniss and John Plath Green are very difficult to locate.
(According to Green's widow, only 200 copies of Green's book
were printed.) Allen Cabaniss' Cabaniss Through Four Generations:
Some Descendants of Matthew and George is an excellent book
for those working on descendants of Henri's sons Matthew and
George. A month before his death, I obtained Allen Cabaniss'
permission to reproduce the book, and you may want to download
a copy in a pdf
file (185k).
Recently (April 9, 1998), I located
the widow of John Plath Green and she granted me the permission
to reproduce his book, Henry Cabaniss and His Descendants.
The book covers the descendants of all three sons for several
generations, but its focus tends to narrow on brother George's
descendants. You can download a copy of the book in a pdf
file (395k).
For those working on the "v"
branch of the family, Mrs. Anderson's Henry Cavinis, The Immigrant
Infant and Some of his Descendants is sure to be a great
help. (The book is also very useful to those of us working on
the "b" side of the family. Mrs. Anderson provides
more details than Allen Cabaniss and John Plath Green about the
early history of Henri Cabaniss' family. She also provides an
informative background of the Huguenots, something not addressed
in detail by Green or Cabaniss.) The "v" branch of
the family begins with Henri's son, Henry. When the Cabaniss
name is spelled with a "v" instead of a "b,"
it's quite probable that the person is a descendant of Henri
Cabaniss' first son, Henry Cavinis. Mrs. Anderson's book covers
the "v" branch of the family like a blanket. Copies
of the book are obtained through Mrs. Anderson at this address.
For those people (and I'm one of them) that
value the physical attributes of a book just as much as the information
contained between the covers, the Walters' just released book,
The Family of George Cabaniss, falls in the "must
have" category. Making use of material in the other three
books, the authors assembled a compact history of the early years
of the Cabaniss line in America before beginning the book's focus,
the descendants of George Cabaniss who migrated from Virginia
to Rutherford County, North Carolina, about 1804. For more on
the book and how to order, click here.
Descendants of Matthew Cabaniss
Since I descend from Henri's second son, Matthew Cabaniss, I provide some highlights about some of Matthew's notable descendants here. If you know of others that should be profiled, please let me know.
Cabanisses of African American Descent
There are Black Americans with the surname Cabaniss, Caviness, and all the usual variant spellings, some with most unusual stories. I set up a page to pass along some of these stories in hopes of finding other Cabanisses of African American descent.
My Start in Genealogy
My interest in genealogy surfaced about 1975. I'm not too
sure what triggered the interest, but it was sparked. On one
of my visits with my parents, I asked if they had any information
on the Cabaniss surname. Boy, did they ever! Ah, but there was
a catch, there's always a catch, isn't there? My mother had gathered
bits of facts from here and there and typed up a narrative of
the Cabaniss genealogy. Apparently, the documents from which
she took these facts were returned to their owners. So, as I
began piecing the genealogy together on pedigree sheets and family
group sheets, some of the facts seemed just a little off. Compounding
the problem was the love that the Cabaniss family holds for certain
given names; Matthew, George, Henry, and Elijah, just to name
a few.
Gamely, I filled in family group
sheets, spent hours at the library taking notes, wrote letters,
erased family group sheets, filled in family group sheets, spent
hours at the library, erased.... Well, I think you get the idea,
I was erasing holes in those family group sheets at an alarming
rate. I was totally frustrated. The whole thing was like trying
to hit a moving target.
By this time (late 70s) my profession
was demanding more of my time, so I bundled up my notes, copies,
letters, etc., for some other time.
That "some other time"
came about 1995 when, while surfing the world wide web, I stumbled
across a shareware genealogy program. The light bulb clicked
on! Here was the way to eliminate that incredible level of frustration.
And, I had the time to devote to the effort. What could make
better sense? A little later, I developed the desire to create a web site covering
the Cabaniss genealogy.
Elijah Did What? begins the main thrust
of the Cabaniss genealogy presented here.
Others Are Searching, Can You Help?
Read of the Cabaniss searches by others. Maybe you can help. Or, are you searching and need a place to post your search?
Got a Cabaniss Question?
I might be able to help, but there are also others that know more.
For more details about Elijah, see Elijah Did What?