Are you stuck on Which Harris? Of course, you must have a place to begin, and a time frame. Otherwise you are up a creek without a paddle. Here is an idea: The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has many county histories, and many of them are filmed and can be borrowed through your nearby LDS center. DAR Library in Washington DC also has many county histories. There may be some in a University or college library near your home--try searching the local history shelves. Although some professional genealogists pooh-pooh such county histories as *mug books* where persons had to subscribe to have their biographies included, still there is a grain of truth in nearly all these county histories. (These county histories are still being published, and, again, for a fee, you can insert info about your family. Let's hope you have the facts straight.) Where the county courthouse has burned, sometimes the only info you have about the persons featured in these county histories is from that surviving biography. For example, my great-grandfather, who lived in Texas beginning ca 1852, had relatives in Illinois, and, of course Kentucky--across the river. We had letters mentioning these Illinois folks. I was greatly disappointed to learn that one man--mentioned in two letters--lived in a county where the courthouse had burned, and I was going to have difficulty checking out the county records. Fortunately, this man seemed to like to have his name in the county histories--two of them, in fact. In one, he gave detailed info about his family's migration to Illinois, naming his parents and their residences. Furthermore, he gave good details of his own three marriages, the first two wives dying. (Divorce wasn't such a popular item those days.) The first marriage seemed to link him to my great-grandfather. His first wife's surname was the same as that of my great-grandfather. He told the date they got married, something of her migration from Kentucky with her family, that she had borne him several children, but had died after the birth of the fifth child! Then he gave info about his subsequent marriages, much of which I was able to confirm with census searches. If you are looking for a Harris and you have exhausted censuses, whatever deeds may have existed, court records, tax records, try to find a county history. The county or counties in which your ancestor lived may have an old county history. If you cannot locate a filmed copy which you may want to borrow on interlibrary loan, then write to the county library in which your ancestor lived and ask about the existence of such a county history. Some of these stories are garbled--some horribly so--but still there MAY be a clue which you can proceed to investigate in official records and censuses. Just a hint from a person who has a lot of common surnames in her lineage!!! And who never overlooks a county history for places where my ancestors lived. E.W.Wallace