Because of the length, I am sending this in 3 installments: 1st, introduction and analysis of Statement 1; 2nd, Statements 2 & 3; 3rd, Statement 4 and closing. John Four familiar statements were made in message # 9, in Digest V00#78, on 04 June, about Michael Harness, Sr., and his wife, Elizabeth. The first three have been around for many years, and perhaps the fourth one as well, and are included in many Harness write-ups. Because the statements have been used often by others, it might seem they are correct. However, if we examine each in light of proof, none of them can stand up. Proof is a demanding concept, not one satisfied by saying, "Oh, I found that in a book [or FGS] by …." Proof demands documentation, logic and common sense. Note what happens to each of these statements when subjected to the challenges of proof. I will explore them in numerical order. The four statements are: 1. "The Harnesses came from Holland about 1675 at the urging of William Penn." 2. "Michael Harness was born in Pennsylvania in 1700." 3. "He married Elizabeth Zephebe, a relative of Penn." 4. "He [Michael Harness] settled on the Potomac on a portion of his 9,000 acre Fairfax Grant." Number 1. This statement, a short sentence of only 13 words, actually contains four(4) errors of fact: a). the first error is in the expression "Harnesses came from …." The family referred to did not come from anywhere else, at least not with that surname. Instead, the head of the eventual family arrived in New York as Johann Michael Ernst [or Ernst-Hoerner, or vise-versa]. Extant records indicate that he seldom, if ever, personally used the name Harness during his lifetime, even marking his name on his 1779 will [proved 1785] as ME. Incidentally, whoever wrote the will spelled the surname Ernest/Ernesst, which suggests that he didn't know German, or Michael, well either. In that will, only the names of his acknowledged sons were given as Harness. Others referred to him as Harness, but not Michael himself that we know of. [Henry Z. Jones, Jr., The Palatine Families of New York (2 vols., Picton Press, 1985), Vol. 1, p. 378; Jones, More Palatine Families (Universal City, CA, 1991), p. 342; Will of Michael "Ernest," Estates File, Hampshire Co., VA; and Hampshire Co., VA, Will Book 2 (1780-1794), pp. 111-113.] b). the second error is in the words "came from Holland." In common usage, this phrase implies that Holland was "their [his]" home. Not correct. He, his father, and a brother were from Germany, the northern part of Baden, just south of Heidelberg. They "came from Holland" only in the sense that they, like thousands of other 18th century German emigrants, came down the Rhine River from their homes to its mouth at Rotterdam. From that point they seem to have taken ship to England, after which they went to North America [see the Jones references above, and other studies of 1709-1710 Palatine emigration; also Marie Knorr Graeff, ed., 1723-1973; Two Hundred Fifty Years; Tulpehocken; …., (Womelsdorf, PA, 1973), pp. 11 et passim.]. The same was true of his wife, Elizabeth, as will be shown more fully below, under statement 3 [see also Jones, I, pp. 158-159] c). the third error is "about 1675." To have done this, Michael would have had to come to America twenty-five (25) years before he was born; and 35 years before his father left Germany; and Elizabeth would have had to arrive 30 years before she was baptized in Wiesloch, Baden. [see Jones, as above] d). the fourth error is "at the urging of William Penn." This statement absolutely has no validity, if only because William Penn did not even receive his proprietorship of Pennsylvania until 1681! There are no supporting documents, anyway. Thus, documentation, logic and common sense force us to discard this first statement.