Many Harris-Hunters are dismayed that many of colonial Hanover Co. records have been destroyed by fire.  One noted VA archivist/author/lecturer, now deceased, revealed in a long-ago lecture that the Hanover Co.records had been considered so valuable that they had been ordered to the Archives at Richmond during the Civil War.  As the Confederates were evacuating Richmond at the end of the Civil War, they set on fire the wharves on the James River.  As fires are wont to do, the fires got out of control and burned the Archives.  He called this *the Evacuation fire* A few early court records remain and were transcribed and published ca 1979 by Mrs Rosalie Edith Davis, then of Manchester, MO.  Either Mrs. Davis has died, or she is seriously ill.  I am not able to find a valid URL to order these books.  They are paperbound and are not readily available when I did a library search (such was World Cat)  The Library of Congress (genealogy section) may have them, but I did not seek that catalog.  The Library f Virginia has most of Mrs. Davis's books but not the one called *Where Have All the Children Gone?* which refers to orphans, their guardians, etc. I have my battered copies of Mrs. Davis books on Hanover and Louisa Co. (falling apart) which I ordered years ago from an ad in The Genealogical Helper.  We old-timers teethed on those issues of GH. Slowly, I will post some excerpts which pertain to Harrises of colonial Hanover Co.  Keep in mind that unless these mostly Harris men cluster around families into whom we have some inkling they married, they MAY NOT be related to other Harris families in early Hanover Co.  Hanover Co was formed 1721 from New Kent Co.  The northern part [I am not a geographer] of Hanover Co. became Louisa Co. in 1742, and those records seem to be intact. Mrs. Davis compiled books on Louisa Co also. Also Fredericksville Parish [not the same as Fredericksville, the town in VA.  Again, these books are not found easily.  Even the Family History Library has no copies of these books which are very well done, although they are abstracted--not complete--records.  Mrs. Davis used microfilmed records at the Virginia State Library.  I have not checked the Family History Library film records for Hanover Co.  I know from experience, however, that the handwriting of those microfilmed colonial records are NOT easy to read.  I believe there are some parish records for Hanover Co. Check the online database if your public library (or a nearby library) has HeritageQuest. There are some colonial church records, which appear on the digitized database called HeritageQuest, available at some public libraries.  If your local library does not subscribe,pester your librarian until she.he can tell you which libraries in your state subscribe to HeritageQuest  Then try to get a library card from that library, even if you have to pay a non-resident fee.  Ordinarily, with the number on that card, you should be able to access the database on your home computer.  C G Chamberlayne  The vestry book of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, Virginia, 1706-1786 Richmond: The Library Board, 1940, 695 pgs. E.W.Wallace