Researching Illegitimate Ancestors

Comment

Comment by James Alfred Locke Miller Jr. on July 26, 2011 at 8:02pm

Cyrus Miller's 3rd and last wife (no issue) in his old age; was Mary Ann C. Swicegood. She was really his nurse, but then for propriety's sake, they were married. For this he had to give her one of his farms, but with the provision in the deed, that come grain threshing time, one of his named sons could thrash his grain there. In colonial times, Rowan County was a wheat capital of America when grain was harvested by hand sickle and cradle. Cabarrus was the center for gold. Little Locke Miller, orphaned when his father, Capt. Miller was killed at Frederickburg, and mother Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Hall Miller died a month later in grief; little Locke Miller hated his grandfather Cyrus so much, one day he rolled all over Cyrus' wheat fields (with snakes in them) so Cyrus could not harvest them. His sisters were reared by the Pinkston or Hall family. When one died young, the other wrote the judge for money for her coffin and told the judge Cyrus was taking their estate for his own use. John Cyus Miller's descendants by Sophie Propst begin on page 39 of Berbnard W. Cruse, Jr's 1978 book, "The Descendants of Johann Nicholaus Heinrich Kress (Cress)". She descends Cabarrus patriot "Dr." Henry Propst, Sr., of Cabarrus Co., N.C. A descendant of Cyrus younger son Giles Ashby Miller, said Cyrus would take the wagon alone on Fridays and Saturdays to the Salisbury saloons; done, the bar-keep would seat Cyrus in the wagon and hit the flank of the horse who knew the way home (three to five country miles); but often when the horse went, over the seat back Cyrus went too, for a splayed-out ride in the back of the wagon home.

Comment by James Alfred Locke Miller Jr. on July 26, 2011 at 7:27pm

Via my Yonge distaff sides, I supposedly have several wayback English Royal ancestors, and Gen. Nicky Nickerson, USMC, based on that, found my bastard forebears. The late Lady Dia supposedly had more Royal blood than her husband, but her's was all illegitimate. I have more recent illegitimate kin in Rowan County, N.C. My great, great, grandfather, John Cyrus Miller, b1811 Deutsch Buffalo Creek, Cabarrus Co., N.C. (I desc. 1st wife Sophie Propst), died 1893, Franklin, Rowan Co., N.C., by his child cook Louisa "Lou" Nash (pre-Social Security, he owned several farms and would go to the Rowan County courthouse to get orphans to work them) he had John Spry Miller, Frank Miller/Frank Nash, and Tom Miller/Tom Nash. Without acknowledging being the father, he paid the county bastardy bonds on all three. I feel a kinship with Spry especially as he was a boiler maker at the Southern Railroad's Spencer, N.C., shops and helped streamline Southern's only pre-war streamlined steam locomotive. My mother's Bank of Cape Fear, Bradley family was involved with the Wilmington & Weldon Rail Road that became the Atlantic Coast Line. I love trains but was an FAA A&P licensed sheet metal mechanic for Piedmont Airlines, USAir, and US Airways and feel a sort of craft kinship with Spry. His descendants are good folks. They tell me Frank and Tom were reared by the Jacobs family of Salisbury, N.C., and one became it's Chief of Police, and one committed suicide in a land dispute. Likely they do not know it, but they descend Capt. Frederick Fisher of the Revolution (by first wife Rosanna, most joined the DAR/SAR on 2nd wife Ann McBride who U.S. Senator, Col. Charles Fisher, CSA, descends. He helped start the N.C. State Railroad, and Ft. Fisher, N.C., is named for him. Allegedly the late Sen. Jesse Helms and the mother of President Jimmy Carter were descendants). Also worked for Eastern Air Lines as a ramp serviceman. I'd love to meet Tom and Frank's descendants and leave a pebble on their tombstones. Cyrus is buried Bethel Lutheran, Franklin, with his son Capt. Alfred Alexander Miller, CSA, and his son, Lutheran Rev. John Abner Locke Miller who justly hated Cryrus. Cyrus wed second, the widow Mr. Mary Ann Barringer (Behringer) Redwine, widow of Pleasant Redwine. She divorced Cyrus for adultery (Locke Miller testified against Cyrus), the case is in the N.C. Supreme Court records (Sophie Propst had Barringer/Behringer blood also). She is buried as "Mrs Mary Ann Miller, Widow of Pleasant Redwine". My Miller kinswoman, Lou Yaeger, worked in the Charlotte, N.C., school system for a black principal, Dr. Miller who once told her either they were kin or he descended Cyrus. In the last 1850 census, Cyrus' slave schedule showed 21, the last a mulatto baby. Fifteen seemed to have come with 2nd wife Mary Ann, and five with Cyrus. If they are part of the family; so be it, and "Welcome" cousins. Cyrus brother Alexander Monroe "Sandy" Miller also removed from Cabarrus County to (Union or Montgomery County?), Illinois. Brother Frederick Haro Miller to the Republic of Texas. The fate of brother Samuel D. Miller is unknown. Their father was John "Henry" Miller by second wife, Mrs. Emelia "Milly" Fisher Sossaman. Henry ran the Sossamn-Miller-Foil mill on Dutch Buffalo Creek until his Sossaman step-children came of age. His first wife was Ann Barbarah Harris Miller (daughter of farmer and magistrate Ephraim Drake Harris of German origins) by whom he had Miss Nancy Miller who died young, and Caroline Miller who wed Aaron Ridenhour and removed from Cabarrus to Illinois. In he 1850 Rowan census, Cyrus says Henry was born "Germany", but brother Sandy in the 1850 Illinois census says Henry was from "Prussia". Miller being a common name, who Henry's parents were seems hopeless. On a hunch, I checked German phone books for the family name of Haro/Harro (normally Spanish). I found about 300 of them with Germanish first names. My hunch is we are looking for a female Haro who wed a male Muller between circa 1775 and 1785?