Family Research Assistance Needed

Question

This year my grandfather is turning 97 and one of the items I am desperately trying to work on is a print out of a 5 generation fan chart for him using Greg's fabulous Fan Chart app.

I am hoping the community may be able to offer some insights, clues, and/or research assistance on some of his ancestor profiles and brick walls in order to help me try to fulfill an old man's dreams.

One of the most stubborn brick walls - Charles H Harris (1875 - 1958) - is listed as being born in Mississippi according to the 1900 through 1940 censuses. The only reference available so far to his parentage is located in his death certificate, stating his father's name was "Charlie". The Censuses also hinted that "Charlie" was born in Alabama.

Are there any kind souls willing to lend a bit of research assistance?

Comments

Have you tried ordering a copy of his Social Security application?  He would have needed to provide some evidence of his birth date and the names of his parents.

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Here is the 1880 census with the Charles Harris' living in Mississippi who were born in Alabama, your Charles Harris born in Mississippi should be listed with his parents as he would have been only about 5 years old.  Perhaps there is something here?   https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&q.birthLikePlace=Alabama&q.givenName=Charles&q.otherGivenName=Charles&q.residencePlace=Mississippi&q.residencePlace.exact=on&q.surname=Harris%20&f.collectionId=1417683l

Are you sure of his birthdate?  In the 1890 Census on Familysearch I can only find one Charlie/Charles Harris born in Alabama and in 1890 he was 5 years old living with his mother Elizabeth.

Answer 1

So, this won't be terribly helpful and you may already have it, but if you notice on Ancestry.com the picture of Charles Woodson Harris has the caption "Harris, Charles Woodson Family" with the number F485 next to it?  Do you have or have you seen the article that picture came from?  It appears to be from a series of genealogical books that were popular in the 1980s and 1990s.  I have ones for Chickasaw County, Mississippi and Yalobusha County, Mississippi.  Historical societies put them together with the assistance of a commercial publisher.  People in the communities wrote up their own family histories with whatever info they might have.   The two I have are from different publishers but their formats are identical so it looks like the company doing them was bought out or changed names. The Yalobusha County one was published in 1982 by National ShareGraphics Inc. (Dallas, TX) ; and the Chickasaw County one was published 1997 by Curtis Media Inc. (Bedford, TX).  Maybe there is one for Pontotoc County or somewhere in Texas?  Maybe a call to historical society might yield a copy of the article (if you don't already have it)?  Sometimes the articles had info from family bibles or that sort of thing.

And while I understand that you are asserting that there is no evidence of a connection here, one of the main things I sometimes do to distinguish unrelated families is to work on the family that I want to distinguish.  Working on the Charles Woodson Harris family could either lead you to a connection or it could help you rule that family out.