Chance Harris 1820 - bef 1900

Some years ago I was contacted by a David Harris who resides in Tallahassee FL. We have been corresponding over the years. He believes that his ggggrandfather was Chance Harris. However, it would mean that Chance had 2 familes. An older family residing in Macon County, AL and a younger family residing in Thomasville Ga.

The story is that Chance left Thomasville GA around the late 1860's with a daughter by the name of Peggy. I did find Chance Harris in 1870 with his then wife Melvina and Peggy Harris (our descendant was living next door to them with her childdren and our gggrandfather's Chance and Alabama with their sister, Katie). It seems that Chance left because the white men wanted his daughter, so he ran off with her. They thought he had went to Virginia but it seems they went to Alabama.

I did find a Chance Harris on the 1880 census for Thomasville GA residing in the household with a woman named Laura and children. He was much older than the woman he was living with. David did tell me that Chance had about 16 or so children.

It is possible that he appeared on both census. Even if he was not living with one of them, they could have still included him in the household. It was also means that he might have been going back and forth between households.