ABOUT MILLER

THE PHOTO...Francis Marion Miller and Emma Jane McGranahan

THE KNOWN...The family connection starts with Francis Marion Miller (b.1849), a great grandfather of Sandra L. Clitter (one of the five first cousins whose relationship launched this site). Francis married twice and had two children, May and Rae, with his first wife Margaret Rea. He also had two children with his second wife. Maude and Hallie, were the offspring of Emma Jame McGranahan whom Francis married in 1888 after Margaret's death. Francis Marion was a farmer who lived in Bridgeton, a small town in Raccoon Township, Parke County. Indiana. Several censuses list him as 'Marion Miller'.

Hallie Miller married George Everett Clitter and their son James was the father of Sandra L. Cliitter. Family lore has it that George Everett was introduced to Hallie Miller by his friend Paul Kerr, a cousin of Elizabeth Kerr Miller (mother of Francis Marion). Paul had been head of the Baseball Hall of Fame. (When Sandy was about 10 years old, she was at her grandparent's home in Delray Beach, FL, and Paul Kerr was there visiting. He was very tall and very handsome. Sandy was enamoured. He spoke of Cooperstown, NY and the Hall of Fame, and presented her with a miniature baseball bat which was a pencil. Sandy had that pencil (which was a treasure) for over 20 years!)

The Miller surname ancestry has been thoroughly researched by many genealogists and the ancestors of Francis Marion were easily integrated into the Millers descended from Johanne Michael Miller (spelled Mueller on German church records), born in 1655 in Switzerland. The first Miller in this line to migrate to the United States was Johanne Michael, one of his five children who was born in Germany and died in the Maryland colony in 1771. Jacob Miller, great grandson of Johanne Michael and grandfather of Francis Marion, moved from Virginia to Parke County, Indiana, sometimes described as the Covered Bridge Capital of the World.

As included in the History of Parke County by Beadle, J. H., published in 1880, Francis Marion "is a national of the most ardent type. He is quite a reader and talker, especially on political subjects." It's therefore not surprising that he kept daily journals which have been very helpful in researching the Parke County Millers.

AND THE UNKNOWN...About the only unanswered question of the Francis Marion Miller pedigree is in knowing the ancestors of Johanne Michael Miller, born 1655. However, because the Miller surname has been researched in depth, this no doubt would have been resolved by now if it was possible.

But as mentioned in the Clitter family discussion, any surname can be researched for both its point of origen and ancestral homeland.