J. Farris wrote to the Hanover Co., VA List: I am looking for information on ancestors of Louisa Harris, daughter of Graves Harris. She was b. about 1814 in Warren Co., KY and married Caleb MAY in Sumner Co., TN. Caleb and Louisa moved to Johnson Co., MO about 1840. After a while, the Harris, Graves, Overton mix gets pretty confusing for an amateur like me. HELP!!!. My response to J. Farris: 1. Where did Graves Harris live (when you last saw him in a record)? The name is unfamiliar to me. Does he appear on the tax lists of Warren Co., KY? I see that the Family History Library in Salt Lake City has 8 microfilm reels of tax records beginning 1797. That is generally a good way to spot early residents of Kentucky, rather than using censuses. Also, court records are quite useful--they are called court order books in Kentucky. 2. I am unfamiliar with most Tennessee research, but I happen to know that Sumner Co., TN has its own archives, and an index of their holdings has been published. (For the name of the index, you might use the online catalog of LDS at www.familysearch.org. Link to catalog is on lower right. Perhaps you can to write Sumner Co. Archives and ask their fees for searching--and hopefully find something of your ancestors. 3. If you are near an LDS (Mormon) family history center, you need to get acquainted with a people-finder called AIS (Accelerated Indexing System). These are hundreds of microfiche and they comprise a consolidated census index for the whole US through the year 1850, and, in some instances--say Western Territories, the AIS goes beyond 1850. There are also mortality schedules for 1850 and for 1860 (for those persons who died in the 12 months preceding the census). All FHCs have been provided with AIS, I am told. (Call up your center and learn the days and hours of opening, and recognize that the volunteers are NOT always genealogists and don't always know the holdings of their center. But ask and browse!) A word of caution: AIS has many errors--duplications, mispellings, omissions--but if you find your folks, you are way ahead! 4. The fact that the name Overton creeps in your Harris family suggests (but does NOT prove) that this particular Harris family MAY have had some connection to the William Harris-Temperance Overton family of colonial Hanover Co. However, when you look at AIS (arranged alphabetically by surname), you will discover MANY Overtons in Tennessee, including one county named Overton. (I was researching some early Kentucky land records--indexes--the other day, and discovered many Overton males in those lists. They were originally of Virginia, of course.) And Harris is such a common name!!! 5. If you don't subscribe to Harris-Hunters, you should do so. I believe this is the address: [email protected] (And welcome to the world of Harris-Hunters!) E.W.Wallace