Thank you, E.W>, for that detailed response. Have medical emergency here with hubby in hospital; will get back to you later. Nancy ----- Original Message ----- From: <Hdanw@aol.com> To: <HARRIS-HUNTERS-D@rootsweb.com> Cc: <drnmc@jps.net> Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 2:55 PM Subject: Indiana Harrises > Nancy wrote as follows: > > Fellow Searchers: Is anyone following the Harris families listed in the 1830 > IN census in Dubois Co? These heads-of-families have ALL departed Dubois by > 1840: Nicholas, James (2) Overton, Frederick, Nelson (misprinted on this > Ancestry form as "Holson"), William. In fact, Nicholas, Overton, and Frederick > have left Indiana altogether, if the census on my screen is correct. I > couldn't determine where the William and the Jamses went, because their names are > too common. > I am trying to determine if this group is connected to the Thomas Harris > who IS in Dubois Co IN in 1840....and 1850 and 1860. Thanks for your insight, > Nancy > > My response: > > I have a few suggestions, and I bet others on this list have other > suggestions. We all have favorite sources to untangle our tangled Harris genealogies. > > First, are you near an LDS center? If so call them up and ask if they have > hundreds of microfiche called AIS = Accelerated Indexing System. This is a > comprehensive (but high error rate) census index for the entire US through the > 1850 census, and the last Searches (each census group is called a Search) are > mortality schedules for the 1850 and 1860 censuses, a source which all of us > should check from time to time. (I found two ancestors in these mortality > schedules.) > > These indexes (on microfiche) are arranged alphabetically by surname and > first name (with lots of duplications of entries). I don't recall the exact > arrangement, but the county and the state are given, the page number, and the > census year. The first search are the earliest censuses with some tax lists > included to make up for the largely missing 1790 census. This is always a good > place to start--if you can locate AIS, that is. > > If you suspect your Harrises were land owners in Dubois Co., IN (you may have > to check the tax lists for the years they were in Indiana), then another good > place to start is with the county deed indexes--grantee and grantors. > > Have you checked probate indexes for your missing Harrises? Did Dubois Co > divide and form another county? > > If the Harrises got their first land in Indiana from the Federal Government, > the Bureau of Land Management website may be a good place to search. > > If they owned land in Indiana and then moved away, what happened to the land > they left behind? Did they sell it? Did the sheriff sell it for non-payment > of taxes? Did they give it away? > > Court records are another good source to locate missing ancestors, especially > if they were landowners. Someone had to serve on the jury. Some got > punished for various crimes--misdemeanors and criminal acts. But lots of ordinary > folks got called to court for trespassing and for debt. Everyone sued everyone > else for debt!!! > > To check what records are generally readily available for a particular > locality, I check with the Family History Library catalog (online at > www.familysearch.org ) Type in the place. Then go down the long list. One of the items I > generally overlook--but my genealogist-librarian-author friend tells me I > must NOT overlook--are genealogies > > One source I have used in the past are county histories, which are frequently > distorted by the descendants who give the information, but once in a while > there is a good clue--such as the parents of your ancestor. About the > grandparents, the person giving the info gives muddled information, I have found. > > You may want to search the Fam Hist Lib catalog for the general records of > Indiana, since your folks were there not too long after the Revolution. > > On the FH website there is a link to a research outline for Indiana. You > might look that over for other ideas of where to look. > > Depending on where you live, you may find that a nearby University or a > community college has some excellent books on Indiana--filed under local history. > Access the online catalogs and see what is available. > > Happy hunting! > > E.W.Wallace > > > > > ______________________________