This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/QBC.2ACI/2253.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Hi Cynthia, Thanks for writing again. The country of origin of William Harris, b. ca. 1750 Culpeper Co., Va., d. 1748 Wilkes Co., NC, remains a stubborn mystery that has refuses to be solved. There is a famous line of Harrises in colonial Virginia that extends back to John Harris, tobacco planter, and older brother Thomas Harris, co-founder of Henrico, Va., second English settlement in America. Their father, Sir William Harris, of Crixe, England, was a London merchant and an original stockholder in the Virginia Company of London which financed the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America. Descendants of this famous Harris line are in central Virginia when our ancestor was there, and it’s tempting to speculate our ancestor is a member of this famous family, but alas there is no proof. We know a William Harris was in Culpeper Co., Va., when the county formed in 1749. Whether this William was the father of our William is not known. Family historian Pam Stone says John Harris, b. ca. 1727 in Spotsylvania Co., Va., is possibly the father of our William. This John Harris married Hannah Stevens or Stephens on April 3, 1784, in Spotsylvania Co. Ms. Stone cites a child of the couple, William Harris, b. 1752. John Harris also had a brother, William, as well as brothers James, Robert and perhaps Job. Two other family historians, Earl Dean Harris and Mary L. Gillespie Burt, in “Alleghany County Heritage,” published in 1983 by the Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society, said our Harris family is of English and Welsh origin but provide no additional details. Harris and Burt drew upon research by noted Wilkes County historian the late Mrs. W.O. Absher. Note that Jacob Harris had a brother, Squire. Also, Jacob’s nephew, Henderson, my ggreat-grandfather, was referred to in the 1850 Census as Squire. Also note that a family of Kannadays were living in Culpeper County, Va., at its founding. I have not yet been able to check on any possible connection to our Kannadays. There are several names in Culpeper at that time that match names of people living near our ancestor William in Wilkes County in the late 1790s, and that’s a subject of future research. Good to hear from you. Happy Harris Hunting. Stephen Harris