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