Did William Serve in the Revolutionary War?

I have had this copy of a military document for many years, but I can find no proof that this is our William Miller.

To begin with, there is no indication of which part of Maryland this person is from.  According to Wikipedia, the 3rd Maryland Regiment was organized on 27 March 1776 of eight companies from Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Talbot, Harford and Somerset Counties of the colony." From everything we know about our William, at this point in time he owned property and lived in Cecil County, Maryland.  I also have records proving that an unrelated William Miller lived in Harford County at this time.

Additionally, according to Wikipedia, this regiment served from 1776 until 1783. We know from an extract of Cecil County marriage records that our William married Rebecca Bradford on 13 June 1778.  While this marriage date does not preclude military service, I think it is unlikely that our William, 46 years old when married, was serving at this time of his life.

Finally, our William is listed in the National Patriots Index, p. 470, National No. 300007, National Archives: "Miller, Wm.: b 2-22-1732  d 1814  m Rebekah Bradford  PS MD."  A letter from a fellow researcher, Ann Curnow, notes that PS stood for "Patriot Service" and meant civilian service.

If anyone has further information to prove this is our William Miller, it would be great if you could comment below or email at the address to the right.

Thanks!

NEWS ABOUT OUR BRADFORDS FROM THE MARYLAND DNA PROJECT!

At the Maryland DNA project website - https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/maryland-dna/faq - it looks like some of our Bradford ancestors are definitely listed, including a fascinating new piece of information.  The first listed William Bradford and David Bradford are brothers to our Rebecca Bradford Miller, and the information listed with them is already known.  However, the first entry is Samuel Bradford, Rebecca's father, and here is where we get that new information:

Samuel Bradford was born in 1727 in Ireland, and he did marry Sarah Bradford. The startling new information is that he is listed as dying in Fauquier County, Virginia!!

It has puzzled many of us that we have never known where Samuel died.  There is no record of him dying in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, which is where his wife, Sarah, moved to with their daughter, Rebecca, her husband, William Miller, and their children around 1782.  We have also never been able to find any death record for him in Cecil County, Maryland, which is where the family lived for many, many years before moving west.

If Samuel did go to Faquier County, why did he go without his family? When did he go there and when did he die there? This opens up a huge new avenue of research for us!

My grandfather, Allen Miller Charpier, contended that his "grandfather Bradford" lived out his years on his "plantation in the Shenandoah Valley."  While Faquier County is not included as part of the Shenandoah Valley, it is very close by and is, as can be seen in the picture below, certainly as beautiful.  I  never put any credence in this story because there was just no indication to this effect in the records, but as we all know, DNA is turning the genealogy world upside down.  It may have just done so to our Bradford research!

I hope you will join me in searching out the records of Faquier County, Virginia.  Please email me or post to this blog if you find anything. Thanks!

Faquier County, VA