Isaac Harris, of Brunswick County, Virginia, was the father of six sons and two daughters that have been identified to date. Two of his sons were Revolutionary War soldiers. After the war, the sons lived in Rutherford County, North Carolina. John and William died there, and many of the descendants of William's son, Harbert, remained in the area, as well as some of John's descendants.

Benjamin, Reuben, and Zachariah settled in Greenville County, South Carolina. From there Zachariah moved to Franklin County, Georgia. Later, Wooten, Benjamin, Reuben, and Zachariah moved to Tennessee. Wooten lived in Hickman County, Tennessee. Zachariah also lived there at first, but soon moved to Humphreys County. Reuben lived in Jackson County, and Benjamin lived in White County, where he died. Both Wooten and Zachariah moved to Illinois before 1830, and Reuben, Benjamin's widow, Rutha, with her son, Silas Harris, were there before 1840.

In the 1950s, my sister, Deon (Moulton) Rasmussen did research in Fayette and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, where Zachariah and Wooten Harris lived. Her purpose was to find additional information that would give clues to extend the line back in an effort to find the antecedents of the six brothers. She, with the help of Esther Hoffman, a local researcher, traced the descendants of Wooten and Zachariah with their many intermarriages with other families in the area. Shortly before Deon's death in 1964, she gave her records to me. Later, I joined the Fayette County, Illinois, Genealogical Society and received their quarterly publication Fayette Facts. This gave me the opportunity to exchange information with many others who were working on these same families. Esther Hoffman, Deon's researcher, had passed away, leaving her genealogical records with her cousin, Audrey Probst, of Fillmore, Illinois. We corresponded for many years and shared our records.

Still later, I submitted a history of the Harris Family to the editors of the Bulletin of the Genealogical Society of Old Tryon County, and corresponded with Margie Cox of Marion, North Carolina. I am indebted to her for sharing her research on the descendants of her ancestor, Harbert Harris, son of Isaac's oldest son, William. Alice Duncan, a descendant of Reuben, had considerable research material on his family, and we shared our research with each other. In addition, data on all the brothers' families was found by research at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Since this version of my history will be available on the internet, and to preserve personal privacy of those who may still be living, I have chosen not to include detailed information on persons born after 1930 who may still be living.

In presenting this genealogical history, I have chosen to divide the records into "Parts." In the first section, Isaac Harris - Beginnings, which is not numbered, the records and basic background material concerning Isaac Harris's family is given. Each of Isaac's children and descendants are featured in a separate section of the book, Parts I through VIII. The numbering scheme throughout corresponds with the order in which children were born. You can go directly to a particular part, with a mouse click on one of the hotlinks below, or on the navigation bar at the top and bottom of this page.

Because there was considerable intermarriage between descendants of Alexander Rhodes and descendants of both Wooten and Zachariah Harris, I have chosen to add Part IX, devoted to the descendants of Alexander Rhodes who are not also in the Harris line. Those with connections to the Harris line are included in the respective Parts devoted to their Harris ancestors. My sister, Deon Rasmussen, and Esther Hoffman expended considerable effort to collect this information; it seems fitting to make the data available here.

1. Foreword (this document)
   • Conventions Used throughout the book
     
     
   • Glossary of Abbreviations and Terms
     • Abbreviations
     • Terms
2. Table of Contents
3. Isaac Harris - Beginnings
4. Part I -- William Harris Family
5. Part II -- John Harris Family
6. Part III -- Wooten Harris Family
7. Part IV -- Benjamin Harris Family
8. Part V -- Elizabeth Harris Family
9. Part VI -- Mary Harris Family
10. Part VII -- Reuben Harris Family
11. Part VIII -- Zachariah Harris Family
12. Part IX - Descendants of Alexander Rhodes
13. List of Additions and Corrections

More extensive research information has been available on descendants of some of the children. Therefore, some Parts been divided into chapters, with a separate chapter for descendants of each of their children for whom we have records. You may access those chapters directly from the Table of Contents . In addition, there is a secondary navigation bar at the top of each of the Parts divided into chapters to facilitate moving around through the listings in Parts that include chapters.

Further, within some chapters, there are also subchapters set up, primarily for convenience of the reader. With the listings of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, it can become confusing to follow your particular family line in descendancy charts. To reduce some of this problem, we have used subchapters that are organized, again, in the order of the children's birth. However, there may not be a subchapter for every child in a family where subchapters are used. We simply skip over those children for whom a subchapter is not needed, e.g., a child for whom we have no information about descendants, or a child who died young, etc.

In at least one case, we have set up subchapters to follow the family lines of a first and a second spouse. In these situations, both the chapters and subchapters affected will include special navigation bars at the top and bottom of each webpage to help in navigating through that family line.

In every case where a person is listed, along with children, etc., in a separate location, a hotlink is provided that will take you directly to the other location. You will need to use the "Back" button of your browser to return to the page you were on originally, if you wish to continue on the line where you "jumped" from.

Throughout the book, I have used certain standard approaches to presenting the data that are commonly used in genealogical publications. A more detailed version of this section of the Foreword is found in a special section, (Fwd-2).

Showing basis for approximate year of birth for individuals:

Click on the hotlink above to see the full explanation on how approximate year of birth information is annotated in this book.

Identifying families with detailed family listings:

In each family listing, children are listed in chronological order, with an ordinal numeral to show first, second, etc., children. Just in front of the name, a plus sign (+) indicates that there is also a family listing for that person and his/her descendants.

Hotlinks to subsequent family listings:

When a person shown as a child also has his or her own family listed elsewhere in the book, besides the plus sign (+), a special code sets up a "hotlink" so you can jump directly to the location of the entry of interest. Click on the hotlink above for a complete explanation.

Use of capital letters for surnames:

In the family listings, I have used capital letters for the SURNAMES, in line with common practice in genealogical listings. There is an example of this in the reference below.

Use of bold type to highlight names of spouses:

Within the family listings, I have put the first occurence of the names of the spouses of the descendants of Isaac Harris in bold type; click on the hotlink above for more information.

Identifying family lines:

Among the descendants of Isaac Harris, there are several instances where cousins married one another. To clarify these situations, I have shown the family line of the spouses by indicating the generation steps from Isaac Harris by use of superscripts and parenthetical annotations. Click on the hotlink above for more information and examples.

Finding your way through the book:

Each part of this book begins with the known facts about one of the children of Isaac Harris. After the narrative, I have listed the currently known descendants of that child's line. Next comes the listing of the next generation's children, and so on down the line. For a complete explanation and several examples, click on the hotlink above.

Reference Sources for individual data:

When individual records are based on a census record or other publicly available record of birth, death, or marriage, the source is listed in the item. When references are made to deeds, court minutes, or less easily accessed records, extracts from those records are included in the Appendix. To get there, click on the hotlink above; there is also a link to the Appendix at the bottom of each webpage in the book.

Here's how to get to the handy glossary:

Click on the link above to get to the glossary of abbreviations and terms used in the book.