Seeking Millers in Ohio

 

The quest I'm on right now may seem a hopeless plight: finding the family of Lidia Miller, my mother-in-law's second great-grandmother. It doesn't help that Miller has always been one of the three most common surnames in Ohio—not to mention, in much of the rest of the country. But when a Miller shows up in one's family tree, unattached to any relatives at all, what else is there to do?

Having discovered that the entry for Lidia's husband, William Gordon, in the 1840 census happened to be on the same page as someone named "Johnathan" Miller in Perry County's Reading Township, I figured that was as good a starting point as any to find her family. Taking a look at what was on that 1840 census for this other Miller, it seemed he could possibly be an older brother to Lidia. In his thirties while she was likely in her early twenties, that was far more likely than a father-daughter scenario—though the age ranges given for early census records provided plenty of wiggle room for such estimates.

This neighbor, Johnathan Miller, was head of a growing household which included one boy under five, three more under ten, as well as another daughter of the same age, plus two more under fourteen years of age.

Jumping ten years ahead from that 1840 census, we get a bit more detail on Jonathan Miller's growing family in 1850. This time, we find names for those children: Michael, Barbara, Andy, John, Jonathan, Dianah, and Isabel. And we now know at least his wife's given name: Catherine. Again, we can track the family's changing dynamics with the 1860 census, where not only the younger children remain, but a couple named Samuel and Elizabeth "Burkly" are included in the household.

What was interesting was when I reversed directions and looked for signs of Jonathan Miller in earlier records. In tax records for his home in Perry County's Reading Township in 1838—the same year in which Lidia Miller married William Gordon—Jonathan was listed as owning forty four acres. Looking for earlier records, an 1829 entry showed him owning one horse and two cattle. An added bonus: several other Millers' names appeared on the same page in that earlier record, hinting at more possible relatives.

If I could find Jonathan Miller in tax records for 1829, what about the 1830 census? Sure enough, he was listed right there in Reading Township, with a much younger family including his wife and two daughters under the age of five.

That question led to another question: what about William Gordon, the man whose wife had started this exploration in the first place? Had he arrived from Pennsylvania by that point? It's doubtful. Although there were two heads of households named William listed in the 1830 census, the surname was entered as William "Jourdan." While our William would have been seventeen at the time, and thus still living in the home of his father (also named William), both households entered in the 1830 census seemed to represent younger families. William and Lidia's story would not have blossomed until after that point.

All this exploration has done for us, however, is demonstrate that someone named Jonathan Miller lived in Reading Township, Perry County, since at least 1829. That still doesn't tell us who else might have been related to the man, and certainly doesn't provide any clues about a connection with Lidia. We'll still need to dig further to learn more about Jonathan.