Mary, I am a bit confused by the list of names you provide from the law suit. I understand the names in #1 are the children of Joel Harris, son of Edward and Mary Thorpe Harris. What I am not clear on is who are the persons in lines 2 through 9-- Are these also children of Joel Harris? Regards, Warren Carah Brighton, MI Harris Group 4 -----Original Message----- From: harris-hunters-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:harris-hunters-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Mary Kennedy Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 9:04 PM To: HARRIS-HUNTERS@rootsweb.com Subject: [HARRIS-HUNTERS] Names in chancery suit of Lewis Harris Hello, by request I am posting the names in the chancery suit of 1828 regarding estate of Lewis Harris the elder. I know that a page was published in a magzine with a page from the suit. One page only was used ,HOWEVER ,there were 2 suits totaling over 35 pages. Please be assured that I personally have copies of the orginals of the suit., all pages. I am very aware about published records regarding this family. I am also very aware that several lines published in certain books (considered cutting edge) regarding other families, Not Harris, have been clearly and totally disproven by actual court documentation. Three of these within the last 2 months. This from a source,of whom I am well acquainted and who is in genealogy related profession, who had been present on these occasions . I think people are becoming more aware of the need to search and when they search, well--they find. I can understand how that happens as my mother years ago in haste, thinking she remembered what she had been told as a child was to do an article for a book, she found a record that matched a name she thought she remembered, and the article made its way into the book. Big Error, sometime later,I found the real records for the right man and they were NOT even a close match,to what she sent, she was mortified. To this day , I am told that the book said such &such, proof doesn't even work. AHHH the power of the printed word. While I use information for clues, I donot take these for fact until I can verify. You should do the same with what I am sending in this post!!!! I cannot stess verify, verify , verify enough. You may never arrive at an absolute conclusion but at least you can ascertain whether you have a serious error in your genealogy. If you cannot reach a definate proof by process of elemination you can probably arrive at a TENTATIVE conclusion. While this is not the ideal it may prevent your citing the wrong ancestor. I would rather have a "maybe" of a GAP than the wrong one just to complete the family tree.But you have to cite WHY your "maybe" is the most likely one, which usually involves ruling a whole lot of other people out by ,again, documented records. The post that cites the records that prove Joel Harris son of Edward and Mary Thorpe Myrick was dead in 1750 was posted a few days ago. The reason I posted that was because I had been chastised(in private email) some years ago for not realizing, that with Joel being a minor when his father died, Mary had been over his estate and that it was purely the relinquishment (in 1750)to handle his affaris until he became of age. I had known for some time that he was of age before 1750 and deceased in more than one record in 1750, but had cold feet about posting again for several years. I will give the names in the first chancery suit which only changed in the second suit by the # of children for Suckey Ricks. I will note that with her name. Most all of these had a number of children who died before Lewis did. I know this from legal records. The names of the deceased Lewis Harris's brothers and sister as stated in the initial suit will be given with their children LIVING at the time of the suit. All of these names are in the FIRST suit in either initial cause, decree or both After the heirs could not get their money from Lewis the adm. they took him to court again. A couple of notes have been added. John Mason was the attorney for the complainants . 1)Joel Harris decd. has children Gideon, Polly,Priscilla wife of William Felts, Joel, Howell, Henry, Lewis (adminstrator AND DEFENDANT) Sally Grizzard w/o John Grizzard. 2)Hamlin Harris decd. only child William who is "an infant" who is represented by his "next friend" Howell Harris s/o Joel above **it actually states who Howell was in suit 3)Howell Harris decd. (mine who married Edith Thorpe) had children Williamson (mine), Henry, Sylvia/SilviaFerrell , and Priscilla Ferrell .. 4)Randolph Harris decd. children Polly, Rebecca, Joel Harris and Cofield *** their mother was Mary Seward Harris 5)John Harris decd. children Howell, Betsy( wife of John ---eb--n??) , *** I now know it was Tillman, Robertson is Robinson(from POA Nancy (wife of Wm. Robertson )and Sally (wife of Henry Williams) regarding another estate ) 6)Sally Harris Reese decd. had children Harris Reese, Redmond Reese, John Reese, Betsy(married to Arthur Adams) and daughter Polly Reese Ivey who has died by the time of suit . The children of Polly Reese Ivey decd. are Norfleet Ivey and Sally who are represented by their "next friend" George Ivey. 7)Olive Harris Harris (she married Joshua Harris) and is probably the smudged *** other records show Olive without the smudge name in the brothers and sisters of Lewis decd.. had children Fady (wife of John Christian), Jincey (wife of Wm Green), Priscilla (wife of Grigsby Rush), another Howell, Jas. Harris, Joshua Harris , Sally decd.(wife of Nathan Horn)and whose # and names of her heirs is unknown, and Nancy decd. (who was the wife of Robert Green)...the children of Nancy Harris Green and Robert Green are the heirs to their mother's part of her uncle Lewis's estate..their names are Betsy(married----ry Harris), Olive, Fady(wife of John Mc?loed), Nancy *** Betsey's husband is later shown Henry Harris (wife of ____ Shamwell) 8)Lucy Harris Mclemore decd. children Joel Mclemore and Burwell Mclemore 9)Suckey Harris Ricks decd. the # and names of her children unknown ****later suit shows she had 4, one of these had died,no names they" are out of this Commonwealth" While searching over and over the court records of SH County Va. and reading what others have given as their ancestors of the various Harris families there I have noticed a few things that are highly unlikely or downright impossible to achieve. Over many years of careful research of these long ago times of the 1700's and early 1800's, I have learned, at least, a few things: 1)Extremely rare (if at all possible)for 10 children to have been born in 10 years and ALL lived, if some died then that means more than 10 children in 10 years. The wife would probably have died long before the last were born so this would involve another wife in all the mix. Even a couple of multiple births would be stretching it if , they were very lucky, to have one survive. 2)If there were that many children (all would have had to be minors) then someone somewhere was accountable for their care and definately wanted to be reimbursed from an estate. This is invaribley true , no matter who cared for them. If they are not the orphans of someone and have no guardians for their interest , then father must still be alive. Therefore one can be pretty certain any children would be the children of someone who is still living. 3)multiple daughters did not marry in their later 30's/early 40's and have numerous children 4)Multiple brothers of one family were not begatting children in their 80's , mayyyyyyyyyybe one but not likely more. 5) Multiple brothers in the same family were not living until near the age of 100. 6) Most IMPORTANT ..no one is begatting children decades after they have died. 7) entire families did not move away to one state and the children all go back, one by one, to the home county in another state to marry. Travel was way to hard back then for all that back and forth business, especially when it is pretty apparent they did not move in the first place. I would seriously doubt if living in another state they would rush back(multiple times over many years) to SH to inventory various person's grubbing hoes, clothes, dishes and witness deeds not pertaining to them and then rush back to another state. Not to mention jury duties which they could not have done in the first place if living somewhere else. I hope this helps someone, Mary Kennedy ------------------------------- 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