The authors calculate the ground state energies and wavefunctions for small systems of fermions on a lattice using singly and doubly periodic boundary conditions. They find minima in the ground state energy when the magnetic flux per plaquette corresponds to filling fractions with odd denominators. They interpret these minima in terms of fractional quantum Hall states. The pair correlation function at nearest and next-nearest neighbours is calculated as a function of the repulsive interaction strength between particles.