This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: AdamWylieKin Surnames: Miller Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.southcarolina.counties.chester/580.1449.1.2.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: You have much more knowledge than I on the Millers of anywhere. I have never researched independently the Chester area Millers, but I do descend from some later arriving area Millers, for which no one claims a connection as of now. Be assured I wish you well on proving all Chester colonial Millers are related, but that I doubt that it is true in the normal sense (that is, say all are related at least as closely as maybe sixth or seventh cousins). Even if it is truly true for most all of them in reality (if we knew all the connections), DNA will be the only way to get any of the lines, even those currently claimed to be connected, convincingly proven as connected to those of us who can not time travel back to find more data. Now the surname Miller is much more common and universal, but I have the same problem with all my (I collect them all) Chester and York Wylie families. So many William and Samuel and James Wylies and most limited colonial records will require that DNA be employed for any accurate connections beyond those (which all could use DNA as a final determiner) already known through lore, family documents and public documents. So few of them as yet known to be related at the time of their various arrivals to Chester County or District (or the Camden District before it) and so many inconsistent claims. Your continuing research may aid substantially for total thorough research, including all plats, grants, deeds in and out, estate administrations and other early records can not be questioned as a fundamental requirement. It just seems with the early families, it only rarely provides definitive answers. The SC on line archives index is exceptionally limited. You must go to the archives and review at a minimum all colonial records (or those found in their indexes if truly complete) to find many more instances of any name. Further it seems that only when all colonial records are reduced to accurate transcripts searchable by a universal search engine will you get all the potential gold on the Millers or any other colonial families. But will this allow the connectible ones to actually all be connected? For your information and use for whatever little it may be worth, currently I have Robert Miller husband of Jennet (or Janet) White; James Miller husband of Margaret ______ (this James is not documented by anyone else's speculations, but is strongly implied at least to me and I do have the logical maiden name of the wife); and Jannet Miller wife of James Knox, Jr. as the only putative children of Josiah and Elizabeth Hyndman (Hindman) Miller so far, all with many descendants, but I have little documentation only hunches and the claims of others to back these. I am eager to add more, but do not see a need to add a Charles Miller yet but believe there might well be more children with descendants. Have you found a Josiah (or Josias with your spelling variant) Miller obtaining land prior to the 2 Nov 1785 claimed death date (if that proves correct) for the patriarch, or Elizabeth Miller, the widow (if the woman did survive the man as claimed for a decade and more maybe to about 1799), passing on any land, or executing any wills or having any estate proceedings for these two folks? The answer is probably no, for a yes would come close to curing my doubts and answering your hopes. I do not even know if this couple actually reached the colonies, not even by resort to others' hunches or plain rank speculation other than that Elizabeth is claimed to have died at Richburg in 1799 by some as well as made to be Margaret Elizabeth Hindman by some of the posters, on what basis I am unsure. [I would be surprised to see a Millen, Milling be actually descendants of Chester Millers or siblings living with those different spellings, if intentional, as neighbors.] As you may be aware there is the same problem of who is related to who in a given family surname, with a few separate, but possibly related sets of families of Chester area Walkers (among other common surnamed folks). Would that all had well-identified all their local relatives (and well-identified all their known ancestors) in a still surviving record. Did anyone else but you ever claim the majority (or at least 45%) of the Chester colonial inhabitants were from Rev. Martin's flock? Some of my Chester area ancestral lines and their related in-laws came almost certainly along the Philadelphia Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania, long before the Rev. Martin ships. None have I traced to Rev. Martin but all were Scots-Irish Presbyterians. Also two or three or four families of Wylies came with others on the 1767 Earl of Donegal, along with a Miller spouse, Jennet White and her parents and families and many other families. I think a review of the number of Camden (and Chester area)District plats outside the time of that immigration would make the percentage much lower, but that again would require careful record review. Were these Millers 1772 immigrants with or in 1772 even outside of the Rev. Martin congregation or is this known? I do think that any Chester Josiah Miller born prior to 1850 should be a descendant of the earlier man, the Miller patriarch for at least some of Chester area Millers. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.