Ben McDonald is working on a Harris family with Nova Scotia and Eastport, Maine roots, but he would like to know more (as all of us genealogists do, as we get more skilled at this crazy hobby.) I don't know whether Ben has access to Ancestry.com, but if he goes to an LDS Family History Center (Arizona has many LDS members), he probably can use the Library version of ancestry.com at such a center.  I have just used the card catalog search of Ancestry.com and used the search terms Eastport, Maine.  Ben can discover for himself what there may be for Nova Scotia. There seem to be two local histories of Eastport, which may or may NOT have any clues about his Harris family.  Although many genealogists scoff at such county histories, I have found valuable clues in such histories.  One does try to check out statements made, because some are only half truths.  (Wrong name for a grandmother, for example.) However, I discovered through old letters preserved by my extended family that my great-grandfather (and through family deeds in the proper Kentucky county) had cousins in Springfield, Illinois and in Kansas City, MO.  By tracing these cousins through an obituary for a recently deceased wife of one of the brothers, with the help of a skilled genealogist, I learned they (brothers) had roots in Logan Co., IL. Both brothers were attorneys, and one was prominent in Springfield, IL and helped establish the Illinois Historical Society.  In a county history of Logan Co., IL, the birthplace of these brothers, the younger brother cousins gave information about his mother's roots in Henderson Co., KY.  This account was especially helpful as that county's official records had burned earlier in a courthouse fire.   To try to locate such a county history, you may have to search not only the card catalog on Ancestry.com but also google.books.  And do not overlook the FHL catalog, as more and more recods there are being digitized.  Also, if your local library has access to the databases HeritageQuest, use that online resource also. Genealogy is where you find it--even if the county history is wrong in places. More and more genealogical information is online. Example:  I was amazed when trying to help a cousin find some of his Revolutionary Williams relatives to learn that the WHOLE book about the Kings Mountain battle [in SC] by Lyman C. Draper is on google.books.  It was published about 1881.  (I haven't located an index--a handicap of sorts.) Ben knows a good deal about his New England Harris ancestors and their children, but, like all of us, he wants to know MORE.  MAYBE there is something on the internet, and he just has not discovered it YET. Hope springs eternal.  I keep hoping to find a passenger list from Germany for one of my ancestors--I found his wife and four small children in Vol. 2 of Germans to America!!! I found his *Old War* pension claim, I found a divorce from his first wife (the mother of the four small children), I discovered a front page death notice in the digitized Brooklyn Eagle (digitized by the Brooklyn Public Library)--he had been beaten by Brooklyn cops, ruled the coroner, and so on!!! But I would still like to see a passenger list. I think he may have come in through New Orleans, as that is where the rest of the family landed ca. 1852. E.W.Wallace E.W.Wallace

Following up on Evelyn's notes, I have been researching this Harris family for many, many years using Ancestry, rootsweb, genealogy.com, familysearch.org, and anything else I could find. I even contacted the Eastport Historical people to no avail. My Eli Harris was a member of one of the Planter families from New England who made the move to Nova Scotia in the mid-1700's. His eldest born in N.S. was my GG-GM Eliza Harris. I do have a handwritten account of all the birth's of his children, but nowhere does it list the name or names of his wife/wives. Eli emigrated from Nova Scotia to Eastport ME somewhere around 1812 with his brother Gilbert Harris as they had to sign an oath because of the War of 1812. I believe that only 2 of his many children were born in N.S. and the remaining 7 were born in Eastport between 1812 and 1829. Just before the birth of his namesake, Eli Harris in 1829, Eli Harris was drowned off the shore of Deer Island. It is believed he was going to check on a land grant he had in New Brunswick. The younger son Eli died at age 1yr, but the remaining likely remained in Eastport or returned to Nova Scotia. My GG-GM Eliza Harris did return to Cornwallis Nova Scotia where she married Benjamin Steadman, also a Planter family descendant. Much information on this Harris family can be found on Sandy Wilbur's website. Sandy did a lot of research and I give him credit for the information provided. http://www.condortales.com/newgenealogy.html Regards Ben MacDonald Arizona ---- EVELYN WALLACE <hdanw@verizon.net> wrote: > Ben McDonald is working on a Harris family with Nova Scotia and Eastport, Maine roots, but he would like to know more (as all of us genealogists do, as we get more skilled at this crazy hobby.) > > > I don't know whether Ben has access to Ancestry.com, but if he goes to an LDS Family History Center (Arizona has many LDS members), he probably can use the Library version of ancestry.com at such a center.  I have just used the card catalog search of Ancestry.com and used the search terms Eastport, Maine.  Ben can discover for himself what there may be for Nova Scotia. > > > There seem to be two local histories of Eastport, which may or may NOT have any clues about his Harris family.  Although many genealogists scoff at such county histories, I have found valuable clues in such histories.  One does try to check out statements made, because some are only half truths.  (Wrong name for a grandmother, for example.) > > > However, I discovered through old letters preserved by my extended family that my great-grandfather (and through family deeds in the proper Kentucky county) had cousins in Springfield, Illinois and in Kansas City, MO.  By tracing these cousins through an obituary for a recently deceased wife of one of the brothers, with the help of a skilled genealogist, I learned they (brothers) had roots in Logan Co., IL. > > Both brothers were attorneys, and one was prominent in Springfield, IL and helped > establish the Illinois Historical Society.  In a county history of Logan Co., IL, the birthplace of these brothers, the younger brother cousins gave information about his mother's roots in Henderson Co., KY.  This account was especially helpful as that county's official records had burned earlier in a courthouse fire.   > > To try to locate such a county history, you may have to search not only the card catalog on Ancestry.com but also google.books.  And do not overlook the FHL catalog, as more and more recods there are being digitized.  Also, if your local library has access to the databases HeritageQuest, use that online resource also. > > Genealogy is where you find it--even if the county history is wrong in places. > > More and more genealogical information is online. Example:  I was amazed when trying to help a cousin find some of his Revolutionary Williams relatives to learn that the WHOLE book about the Kings Mountain battle [in SC] by Lyman C. Draper is on google.books.  It was published about 1881.  (I haven't located an index--a handicap of sorts.) > > > Ben knows a good deal about his New England Harris ancestors and their children, but, like all of us, he wants to know MORE.  MAYBE there is something on the internet, and he just has not discovered it YET. > > > Hope springs eternal.  I keep hoping to find a passenger list from Germany for one of my ancestors--I found his wife and four small children in Vol. 2 of Germans to America!!! I found his *Old War* pension claim, I found a divorce from his first wife (the mother of the four small children), I discovered a front page death notice in the digitized Brooklyn Eagle (digitized by the Brooklyn Public Library)--he had been beaten by Brooklyn cops, ruled the coroner, and so on!!! But I would still like to see a passenger list. I think he may have come in through New Orleans, as that is where the rest of the family landed ca. 1852. > > > E.W.Wallace > > > E.W.Wallace > > ------------------------------- > 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