Surname Saturday- MILLER, Scotland, USA (NY) [with ties to Fairchild, Burton, Bayne, Anderson,Sinclair, Morrison]

 Well, the earthquake in Chile overtook last week's post before I could finish it. So here it is a couple of weeks late!


The next surname to tackle in my pedigree is Miller. This name, although not one I carry, is special to me. Although not arriving in this country from Scotland until the mid 1800s, through service and marriage, this family has helped connect me to my very American DAR, DUVCW, and  Mayflower ancestors.
My lineage is

1. me

2. my father Robert E. Fairchild (see Fairchild post)
4. my grandfather Victor Miller Fairchild (see his data in earlier Fairchild surname post)
9. Lucy Gertrude Miller 
Born in Hinsdale, Cattaraugus Co., NY on 10 Mar 1874, she was the middle of seven children. Her siblings were Etta, Angela (Angelia), Fred, Alva, Elmer, and Laura. She married my great grandfather Fred W Fairchild (2 Feb 1872 Belfast, Allegany, NY -17 Jun 1932 Portville, Cattaraugus, NY) on 3 Mar 1894 in Olean, NY. They were married by the Rev James McKee and the witnesses also carried the surname McKee .... they eloped!

the mother's name on the reverse of the license is incorrect; she was Mary Elizabeth, not Isabella....

Gertrude (as she was known), must have been a sweet wonderful person, as her best friend named one of her daughters after her, and at least one other in the Miller family did also. She died suddenly of an infection about a week following the birth of her second child, grandpa's sister Marion, at the young age of 23 years, 1 month, and 1 day, on 11 April 1897.

18. John Miller (Jr.) The tale of the Miller family arrives in the U.S. in this generation. John Miller was born in Scotland, and arrived in the U.S. as an infant with his parents and older sister. He was the second of 6 children. There are at least 2 slightly different dates for his birth given. On his death certificate, it appears as Dec 8 1847. The ship arrival records (the "Cuthbert" arriving NY from Greenock, Scotland on 3 May 1849) have him as 3 months old.

At present I haven't located the birth record in Scotland, so haven't nailed down which date is the correct one. [note to self: find it!] They were enumerated on the 1850 census living in Franklinville, NY with Alexander Miller (who is assumed to be the brother to John Miller Sr). He married Mary Elizabeth Burton sometime before the birth of their first child Etta, on 7 June 1868.  Many of the marriages at that time were kept in the minister's log, and so far, this one hasn't surfaced.... So I'll guess that it was about 1867. John was a blacksmith in Hinsdale like his father before him.

John and Mary Elizabeth (Burton) Miller

He died on 19 March 1934 in Hinsdale, Cattaraugus, NY. They are buried in Maplehurst cemetery there.


36. John Miller (Sr.)    born in Crieff, Scotland 20 May 1820 (parish register), 25 May 1820 per Death certificate.  He married Mary Elizabeth Bayne b. 1826 in Dunblane, Perthshire, Scotland on 1 Nov 1845 according to Old Parish Register 348 Dunblane Vol 4., where he was listed as being of Stirling. He was a blacksmith by trade,and is enumerated with his brother Alexander ( also a blacksmith) in 1850 in Franklinville. Alexander moved on to Michigan later, leaving John and his family to remain in NY.  He served in the Civil War, where he enlisted at age 42 as a Pvt in Co. D, 154th NY Vol Infantry on July 8, 1862. He was discharged on Dec 29, 1862 due to "coarse veins in legs". He was discharged before the unit went to Gettysburg.He and Mary had seven children.   He died 29 May 1902 in Hinsdale, Cattaraugus, NY.

72 John Miller   born in Alloa, Clackmannan, Scotland between 1790 and 1793. He died circa 1850 in Scotland. He married Elizabeth Anderson.  They lived on High Street in Crieff, where he and his sons were blacksmiths. 3 of his children immigrated to the US. His son David remained in Scotland.

 The rest here is conjecture, not fully proven:

144.  Henry Miller   born 19 July 1753 Scotland. Married Janet St. Clare ( Sinclair). Living in Alloa, at time of John's birth. There are no other records in Clackmannan of another Miller couple with a son John of right age, so supposition is that these are the parents of John and his brother Henry who was baptized 7 Mar 1790

if that is true, then
288.  John Miller  b ca 1730 Scotland Married Grizzell Morrison 7 Aug 1752 in Clackmannan, Scotland. Had child Henry born 19 Jul 1753.

Final status -- GB 2010 Olympics

Well, I didn't get as much as I'd like, but thanks to Thomas' challenge I got a lot of stuff accomplished in this 2 weeks! And I had to hustle  today to make it happen!
Category 1 Cite:
       Bronze 
Category 2 Backup
        Silver
Category 3 Organize!
        Diamond!!!   (Tasks A, B, C, D) I worked really hard for this one!
Category 4 Expand your knowledge
        Silver ( tasks D & E)
Category 5 Write!
        Gold  (Tasks A, C, E    hmmm a gold ace!)
Category 6 Reach out and Gen acts of Kindness.
Well I excel at this as any of my friends can tell you!
       Platinum!
( Tasks A, C, D, E, G)
Well, I will keep the tasks list handy and keep prcticing for the next set of challenges!!!
but
1 Platinum, 1 Diamond, 1 Gold, 2 SIlvers and 1 Bronze is a great showing!!!

and I guess if the time allowed was longer I'd have platinum for Category 3 'cuz Sunday is Scan Fest!
Gotta go, am still working on the Surname Saturday post for tomorrow....

Status Sunday- GB 2010 WInter Games

Well here's my status after a little over a week. with one week to go, not sure I'll finish as high as I want. This is prepared and pre-published on Friday  to appear on Sunday, to see if I've figured out the method! Thanks Thomas for challenging us to become better bloggers!
Category 1.  Cite
Task 1:10 sources completed ( only hundreds to go!)
Task 2:
Task 3:
Task 4:
Task 5:

Category 2: Back Up Your Data!
Task A: completed--- plan made
Task B:
Task C:
Task D:
Task E:

Category 3: Organize your research!
Task A: completed see my previous post!
Task B:
Task C:
Task D:
Task E:
Task F:

Category 4: Expand your Knowledge
Task A:
Task B: 
Task C:
Task D:
Task E: completed surname visualization

Category 5. Write! Write! Write!
Task A: Completed  see under header!
Task B:
Task C: completed  this post & one more for Mon.
Task D:
Task E: completed  see 2 new pages at the top
Task F:

Category 6: Reach out & perform G A K
Task A: completed  made one comment
Task B:
Task C: 
Task D: completed found data for a DUVCW member
Task E: completed --indexing 10 apps in DAR descendants project
Task F:
Task G: completed now following several

Well I was hoping to do more of Cite! and Organize! but I'll do more this week....

Surname Saturday --- Edwards in Canada, Michigan, PA

Well, Edwards is the third surname for my Surname Saturday posts. It occurs to me that it will be awhile until I get to some of the names I have traced way back. The first few are mainly my "brick wall"  types for one reason or another, and this one is no different!
My Edwards connections from my ahnentafel are :

5.  Jennie Gertrude 'Jane' Edwards 
      Grandma was married to Victor Miller Fairchild ( see previous post on that surname).
She was born 13 March 1891 in Merlin, Kent county, Ontario Canada. She had 6 toes on her left foot according to her birth certificate, a fact I never knew, as visits to relatives were few and far between in my US Navy traveling family.

The family arrived in the US by 1900 when they appear in the census in Leady township, Clinton County, PA. She was the youngest child, with an older brother Harry Lemuel born 1890 and an older sister Grace Elizabeth born in 1888.  She always went by Jane, lied about her age, gave her birth year as 1895, because she didn't want people to know that she was older than Vic. My father even acquiesced, and placed 1895 on her tombstone!!! She trained as a nurse, and she was married  in Lock Haven PA on 15 June 1921.  When she died on 18 Apr 1974 in Olean, NY, I was a senior in college. As dad was an only child, her house was sold and all the belongings were brought to our home.  It was in an old suitcase that I found the obituary of James H. Fairchild, a veteran of the Civil War , which sparked my over 35 year obsession with genealogy.


10. Lemuel Edwards ---my great-grandfather, was the oldest (really second, but the first died at one day old) of nine children. He was born in Essex county, Ontario, Canada on 13 July 1864. By 1870 the family was in Warren, Macomb county, MI, and in 1880 and beyond, in Flat Rock, Wayne county, MI which is part of the greater Detroit area. He worked as a logger, or stave cutter, although he rose to be a mill superintendent in later life. He returned to Canada, as he married his wife Luella Huffman there sometime around 1886 -87 (although I have not yet located a marriage certificate).  His three children were all born in Canada. According to the 1910 census they returned to the US in 1898 or 1900, by 1910 were in Norwich, McKean co, PA.  He was listed as Alien in 1910, but in the 1920 census says naturalized in 1901. Haven't yet found the papers, so am not sure if he [or his wife or my grandmother ] was ever a US citizen. He died in Columbia, Richland, SC on 26 October 1923 of pneumonia, where he was superintendent of a stave mill.
 

This picture was taken of him holding his grandson, my father between Dad's birth in March of 1923, and Lemuel's death in October of that year.The house in the background is not my father's home in Olean NY, so where the picture was taken is unknown.
Lemuel's death certificate sent me on a wild goose chase looking for a marriage between a John Edwards (father)and Sarah Rhodes (mother) .... turns out his mother was Elizabeth Sparks.... it was his  mother's mother that was Sarah Rhodes...


Lemuel's brother Arthur William Edwards was the mayor of Wyandotte, MI when he died in 1932. He and his son ran the American Toy co. [or American Metal co?] . my brother Charles Lee was named after the son.

20. John Edwards [Jr.]  It is with this generation and the next that the mysteries and brick walls start.  He was born about 1835 in Canada East [Quebec] according to information on his marriage certificate. His father's name was listed as John, and his mother's name as Emily.  He married Elizabeth Sparks on 1 November 1862 in Kingsville/Gosfield, Essex, Ontario, Canada. The family arrived in Michigan sometime between the birth of Naomi in Canada in 1868, and the 1870 census.  He was a carriage or wagon maker by trade. In the 1880 census, he gives his father's birthplace as  Canada and his mother's birthplace as Portugal.  He named one of the daughters Naomi Alzora Permelia, so perhaps that is true... The stories in the family have him as orphaned, or  his father being French and the name should be Jean Edouard with the surname dropped because he had to leave France because of a duel..... The records are sparse, and there are many Edwards or Edouards in Quebec, so we may never know....  He died the 25 Feb in either 1897 or 1898.

40. John Edwards  .... married to Emily... was he French, or French-Canadian? Was he a seaman, or did he fight a duel? was Emily really from Portugal? None of his descendants (and there are a lot of descendants! ) seem to be able to get past this portion of our history due to the dearth of records and research. Another brick wall to climb!

Surname visualization graphic

Category 4 , Task E complete!  image from  http://www.wordle.net/

My flag for the GB 2010 WInter Olympics

My heritage is half Italian with the other half English and Scots, maybe a little French as well(?) and I was born and raised in the U.S where my English and Scots forebears came to live and fight in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, WWI, WW2 and Korean War service. I am proud of my heritage!

Publish Post

Winter 2010 GeneaBloggers Games status

Well, in order to try to get my genealogy back in order, I decided the event planned by Thomas on FB was a great incentive.  Now I have been doing research in genealogy for over 35 years. So I have a lot of data, and a lot that is on paper only (some really bad early microfilm copies included!), and research usually wins over organization and proper filing in my busy life...  And when I started using the computer programs, the citations for every piece, and typing of data into the program was NOT my favorite task. There is always a small in work pile. This year has been a treasure trove of research ( see my previous post on top 10 things for 2009) so the new pile has gotten out of hand. Here's what I've been doing:
Competition Category 3 -- Organize your research.  Event tasks:

• Task A: Organize at least 20 hard files or ancestral items (books, fabrics, inherited items) into file folders, boxes, envelopes, containers, etc.; archival-quality where appropriate.

• Task B: Organize at least 20 digital files into folders, label, add metadata, add descriptions, add tags, etc.

• Task C: Organize at least 20 photos into photo albums, scrapbooks, collages, protective holders, boxes, etc.

• Task D: Organize at least 20 digital photos into folders, label, add metadata, add descriptions, add tags, etc.

• Task E: Create at least 20 data entries in your database, or scan 20 photos, or scan 20 documents.

• Task F: Create a master list of your files and notify your family members of where it is stored.

          I have done scads of research since last October, with research winning over filing every time; I now have several piles like this ( this is the worst!) :

 

Before! placed by TV chair at start of Olympics

Since I have to place all data into surname notebooks after entering into computer, the first step is to sort by surname into my file box.  The second step will be to make sure the data from each surname file has been entered into my Rootsmagic program trees [Ooh, can now compete in the Cite! category as well!]. The last step is the actual placement in notebook, or picture archival box (or trash if scanned or duplicate record).

Here's where I am after the Friday and Saturday Olympics broadcasts.  I still have a small pile left, but have run out of room in the file box... so will have to move on to step 2.

I will be platinum by the time I finish this task, as I'm sure that there is enough for 20 scans, 20 picture sorts, and organizing digital files... Thanks for the nudge Thomas! [Go USA!] 

       

Now about those other competition categories..... Hey Thomas, does this competition blog count for participation in a "carnival"  under the "Write, Write, Write category?