And then we have Fred Dorman's contention or conclusion that he could find no evidence that a Harris ever married a Claiborne in that time period. :) I guess we're all out to find the evidence if it exists. Thanks, Evelyn! -Charlie Harris DNA Group 6 ----- Original Message ----- From: "EVELYN WALLACE" <hdanw@verizon.net> To: <Harris-Hunters@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 3:12 PM Subject: [HARRIS-HUNTERS] A digitized Harris [of colonial Virginia] FamilyGenealogy Dear Harris Hunters, Those of you who access familysearch.org frequently have probably discovered that once in a while some publication (or CD) in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City has been digitized. Instead of cleaning up my household clutter, I decided to play around with Familysearch.org and discovered that a published family history of an early (near Hanover co., VA) Harris family has been digiitzed. See bottom of this message for my trial at cutting and pasting. Because there is a lack of citations in this digitized book, I recommend that you check whatever Virginia records (I prefer Virginia land records and patents, myself) exist for that time and that place. (Your queries should ALWAYS cite an approximate place and a time period [rough] and this is why you need to clarify statements made in this digitized book. If the chosen mate of the Harris peson is NOT a neighbor, then question the statement. One noted genealogist/author/librarian made a statement at a national conference in Richmond, VA some years ago to this effect: The Virginia groom in early days always married a bride from downstream. [Exaggeration perhaps, but imagine the perils in the woods surrounding the Harris plantation--hostile native Americans perhaps, wolves, no roads, no street lights, etc. Imagine getting lost in the woods while trying to court a girl not far away!!!] My favorite source to check on relationships of neighbors (and possible marriage mates) is the eight published volumes of Cavaliers and Pioneers which are published and abstracted land patents awarded in Virginia. If you do not have access to these published volumes, which have excellent indexes for surnames, places, streams, etc., then the genealogists's second choice would be the abstracts of land patents on the Library of Virginia website. (Google.com for the URL) Then after you find the LVA website, go down the alphabetized list to the L's and find Land Records. Choose the title which includes the words *Northern Neck land patents* which are intermixed with the later land patents. The disadvantage for researchers of older families is that the newest patents (some in the 21st century) appear first. Click away to the last pages for colonial families. Using the online land patents: The land patents, for the most part, not only name the grantee and the acreage (and the price, if applicable) but also names some geographic areas (mostly watercourses) and the neighbors. If you ignore those clues, then your genealogy will be faulty. (Those who are searching in Tennessee would be well to study land records in North Carolina--and even Kentucky--before Tennessee became a State.) If you know that your Harris family (or whoever) supposedly married into a neighbor family, be sure to check out those neighbors' patents also. Some neighbors had multiple patents, but check the watercourse and the other neighbors. These are your clues, and genealogists need CLUES, especially if you have a common surname like Harris!!! Here is the cut and pasted book entry in the FHL catalog which may of interest to those of you who suspect you are descended from a Harris family in colonial Virginia. You doubtless will have to use the Family History Library catalog and type in either the author, as given, or the title as given. I don't think you can click on *Here* in this cutout. Having been trained to use the *old* FHL catalog, I still use the old one, which gives me a number of ways to search the catalog. The new one is the preference of others, but as I view it, it does not give me sufficient choices. E.W.Wallace Harris family of Virginia from 1611 to 1914 Stmnt.Resp. data gathered and printed for Thomas Henry Harris Authors Harris, Thomas Henry, 1854- (Main Author) Notes To view a digital version of this item click here. ________________________________ Microfilm of original published: Fredericksburg, Va. : T. H. Harris, [1914]. 32, [1] p. ________________________________ Captain Thomas Harris immigrated to Virginia in 1611 and settled on land now in Henrico County. His grandson, Major Robert Harris, married the widow Rice, who was Mary Claiborne, the youngest daughter of Col. William Claiborne, the first Secretary of the Virginia Colony. Descendants lived in Virginia, Georgia, Texas, and elsewhere. . ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HARRIS-HUNTERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message