Ancestry - Isaac Harris Family Page

First Known Generation -
Isaac Harris

Garda Hodgson's Paper: Our distant cousin, Garda M. Hodgson, wrote a genealogical research paper titled Harris & Related Families that traces the lineage and origins of Isaac Harris, father of Benjamin Harris, grandfather of Silas Harris, great- grandfather of Zachariah Harris, and great-great grandfather of William Jasper Harris, Sr.

This article initially appeared in Fayette Facts , a quarterly journal of the Fayette County Genealogical and Historical Society, Vandalia, IL, dated June, 1982, Volume XI, No. 2, ISSN 0737- 1012, pp. 79-90. We have included it on this website both with their permission, and permission of the author.

Mrs. Hodgson's research provides, for descendants of William Jasper Harris, a critical breakthrough, with excellent documentation.

The article expanded into a Book!

Could this be our family line?: Another research paper on Harris and other family lines turned up in 1977 at the Virginia State Library in Richmond, where Doug Paulson found a document which purported to spell out Harris Family origins in the US. Initially, the document seemed of interest only because of that allegation, though none of the names listed seemed to match with any known ancestors of William Jasper Harris.

However, when taken with Garda Hodgson's research, this paper gains greater potential as a further breakthrough in research on this branch of the Ancestral Harris family. At this time, we still have no clear connection between the families cited in this paper and our Isaac Harris. Both this research paper and the one listed above trace to Brunswick Co., VA in the mid-1700s, and both include an Isaac Harris. Could they be cousins, or uncle and nephew? We must leave it to future research to answer that question. If we can develop a link to the families identified in this document, we will have solved the question of where our Harris family originated.

Thanks to George A. Harris:: The document authored by Garda Hodgson was sent to the Webmaster by George A. Harris, a descendant of Isaac Harris's youngest son, Zachariah Harris, namesake of the father of William Jasper Harris. (Zachariah's brother, Benjamin was William Jasper's ancestor.) He also provided family group sheets with detailed information on the families of Isaac Harris and his children. Our branch of the Harris family is indebted to him for his graciousness in sharing the information he has collected from a variety of sources. And we must thank the several genealogists who have diligently located all this information, formerly unknown to many of us who descend from William Jasper Harris, Sr.

Family Group Sheet for Isaac's Family: We have included an ASCII Text file of a Family Group Sheet for the family of Isaac Harris that came to us through George A. Harris. [NOTE: See entry below for Reuben Harris for NEW INFORMATON (July 6, 2001) about the identity of Isaac's spouse!]

Family Group Sheet for Isaac's son, Wooten's Family: We have included an ASCII Text file of a Family Group Sheet for the family of Wooten Harris, the third child of Isaac Harris, that came to us through George A. Harris. [We do not have a separate page for this family on this website.]

Family Group Sheet for Isaac's son, Reuben's Family: We have included an ASCII Text file of a Family Group Sheet for the family of Reuben Harris, the seventh child of Isaac Harris, that the webmaster found on CD #12 of the Pedigree Resource File put out by the LDS Church. This particular file also gives a name to "Mrs. Harris," as all the other records refer to Isaac's spouse: Mary Polly Lynch! So we are posting that family group sheet here also. [We do not have a separate page for this family on this website.] Thanks to Tonya Mauldin for posting this information in the PRF! [A word of caution about this record, however: Serious researchers on the Isaac Harris family line believe this to be an error. Tonya Mauldin simply picked this entry up from an Ancestry.com record, and so far we have not been able to find any primary or even secondary evidence to support a finding that we actually know the name of the spouse of Isaac Harris. Therefore highlighting the matter, we can stimulate someone into doing the research that will lead us to further research breakthroughs.]

Family Group Sheet for Isaac's son, Zacharaiah's Family: We have included an ASCII Text file of a Family Group Sheet for the family of Zachariah Harris , the eighth child of Isaac Harris, our common ancestor, that came to us through George A. Harris. [This is George's ancestor. We do not have a separate page for this family on this website.]

This page last updated June 6, 2006