More Information From Member, Don Lancaster

Here is more information from follower Don Lancaster about his ancestors in Cecil County, MD: 

I believe Foard is interchangeable with Ford.

We are trying to see if there is a connection between the Lancasters and the our Millers via the Fords (see previous post for more information). 

PLEASE NOTE:  The last paragraph below mentions that William Miller was co-owner of a mill with Richard Ford in Cecil County, MD.  The land record that I have (which I will try to publish in the next post) says that William and Rebecca own this land that they previously purchased for a "water mill" and are selling it to Richard Ford and to William's brother, Benjamin Miller in September 1780.

Hispaniola & Bullen's Range is another piece of the history of the Fords, Biddle, and Alexander Family through William Bouldin.

His son Richard and Mary Hews daughter, Mary Tamizon Bouldin, married Richard Foard part of that property was willed to his wife and Richard Foard, sister Tamizon Foard, married Eli Alexande brother of David and son of Martin Alexander.

Another Brother of Richard Foard George and John, George had two daughter’s that married into Bouldin family and John Foard, son Richard Sr daughter Sarah married a Biddle sister of my 4^th Grt Grandmother Lydia Rebecca Foard Lancaster.

I also have an Abraham Miller that I don’t think is of the Millers of Washington Co Md he married a Mary Zeller abt 1808.  This date is of when it was filed so they may have married before abt 1804.

I have a Jesse Hollingsworth of Cecil Co Hollingsworth,  make a very large land transaction to a John Miller of Washington Co in 1792  we believe that Daniel B Miller is the Father of Abraham.

Also Mary Zeller Miller remarried 1810 to a Nathaniel Cromwell and she dies in 1824

My Lancaster family married into the Ford Family as I had said before the grandfather of this marriage was an Uncle to Sarah Husbands and she married a Col Henry Hollingsworth brother of Jesse Hollingsworth.

And the Richard Ford Jr, co-owner with William Miller on that mill was brother-in-law to the Lancaster/Ford Marriage.  My 3^rd Grt Grandfather was John W Miller Born 1805-1887, and he named his son’s Daniel W, John Luther, Jacob Andrew, and David Zeller miller.

Thanks for the information Don (I thought I posted this last year, but I just found it in "Drafts"...sorry Don!).

Contact Don Lancaster at:  tracker1961@centurylink.net   or  tracker1961@gmail.com

USGenWeb - An Indispensable Site to All Family Historians

Kudos to the USGenWeb creators and volunteers who have kept this amazing and free genealogy website going all these years. 

18th Century Buildings in Elkton, Cecil County, MD
(source: http://cecilcounty.wordpress.com/2012/03/17

The site includes records from all over the United States, land records, tax records, vital records, cemetery records to name just a few. 

On their home page we read:  "Welcome to The USGenWeb Project! We are a group of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. This Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone." (source:  http://usgenweb.org)

An example of one of their thousands of records that are available free and online is the following Cecil County, Maryland 1783 tax record for residents in and around the town of Elkton (where William and Rebecca lived). Here is an excerpt:

Maryland State Archives
MARYLAND INDEXES
(Assessment of 1783, Index)
1783
Cecil County
MSA S 1437

Andrew Miller. Three Bohemia Sisters, pt, 55 acres. CE 2nd District, p. 10. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Andrew Miller. 55 acres. CE 2nd District, p. 5. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Benjamin Miller. Sims Forest, pt, 380 acres. CE 2nd District, p. 12. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Benjamin Miller. Sims Forest, pt, 20 acres. Notes: and Richard B. Ford of John. CE 2nd District, p. 12. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Benjamin Miller. 390 acres. CE 2nd District, p. 5. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46
Samuel Miller. CE 2nd District, p. 6. MSA S 1161-3-8    1/4/5/46

Source:  http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/stagser/s1400/s1437/html/1437ce.html

This is of great value to our Miller-Bradford research. Here's how:  We have been unable to exactly pintpoint when William and Rebecca packed up their children and belongings and left Cecil County for good, traveling "out west" to the wilds of southwestern Pennsylvania (Fayette County). Research indicated that it was probably around 1782 or 1782, but we haven't been able to prove it. 

While several of the above-mentioned Miller's are no doubt related, we can easily see that William is no longer a taxpayer in Cecil County in 1783, making a strong case for he and his family having moved earlier in the year or in 1782. And again, this record was completely free and took me about 2 minutes to find vai my online search just now.

In addition to USGenWeb's wonderful collection of U.S. records, they have started genealogical special projects that might be of interest to you either for research purposes or to volunteer!

For instance, you might balk at the thought of walking through a cemetery, but it's actually a

 great experience!  It gets you out in the fresh air, you will probably find, as my family and I have, that reading the tombstones is fascinating, and your findings could be invaluable to another family historian. Check out this opportunity:  

"The USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project was started to encourage people to walk cemeteries and donate copies of the surveys to The USGW Archives. Many transcriptions are already available online and more are added daily. The Project also provides links to cemetery transcriptions that are not archived in The USGenWeb Archives. These include transcriptions on County web sites and on independent web sites." 
(source:  http://usgenweb.org/projects/index.shtml )

Please visit them at the the above website address for a full list of projects. 

And why don't we all write them a heartfelt thanks for their great service, and maybe even become a volunteer. Contact USGenWeb at:  webmanager@usgenweb.org 

Our Miller's and Bradford's Along the Elk

Elk Landing along Elk River
(Courtesy of http://www.elklanding.org/timeline.htm)

New research consistently attests that our Bradford's and Miller's were in the heart of Scots-Irish territory, just adding to the wealth of evidence that they were indeed from Ulster. Here is another example (search previous posts for their ties to the Elk River):

"A southern stronghold of Presbyterianism was in the neighborhood of Newcastle, Delaware. The narrow tongue of land between the upper shore of Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River is shared by Maryland and Delaware. Maryland s portion includes the Elk River and is known as Cecil County. Delaware's portion is called Newcastle County, with Wilmington, its chief city, at the mouth of Christiana Creek. North of these two counties and across the Pennsylvania line are Lancaster and Chester counties (all known as Chester County from 1682 to 1729), extending from the Delaware River to the Susquehanna River. This territory, south a few miles from Philadelphia, became the mecca for Scotch emigrants from Ireland. These emigrants pushed up through Newcastle County to cross the Pennsylvania line, hoping to escape from Maryland and its tithes. Unfortunately at this very time the exact line of the boundary was in dispute between Lord Baltimore and the heirs of William Penn, and many of the settlers flocked in and preempted land in dispute, without obtaining right or title. To add to the confusion the Penn family were in a state of domestic discord, so that their agent James Logan allowed very few grants in any place after the year 1720. An exception was made however in the case of the Scotch Irish, people who, said Logan, "if kindly used, will I believe be orderly, as they have hitherto been, and easily dealt with; they will also, I expect, be a leading example to others. " These grants were made for a settlement which was called Donegal." (Source: http://www.lynx2ulster.com/ScotchIrishPioneers/014.php

Lancaster Family - Back Creek Hundred Ties?

Here is a wonderful email I received from Don Lancaster who found the blog and was kind enough to write to me. My answers to him are in bold and brackets.  If any of you have information that might help him, please write to me at the email address listed to the right, and I will forward it on to him. 

Thanks Don! Truly appreciate hearing from you!

My family is of very early Cecil Co as wel,l 1670s.

Sinclair Lancaster Captain of the 18^th Battalion,  son Abraham Lancaster married Lydia Foard

This family are family of Pennington. Lum, Bayard, Bouchelle, Hollingsworth, Herman, Thompson [[sadly I don't have any of those names in my family history].

Abraham Lancaster served the war of 1812 Baltimore Maryland and New Castle De, after his father’s death he migrates to Washington of Williamsport 1820 (Ortho H Williams founder)

A lot of Miller’s of Germany are settled of the Han Michal Miller line. [Have researched Hans Miller and others, and we are definitely not related to any of the German Millers (Darn! There is lots of info about Hans, so I wish I did tie in!!)]


Abraham Lancaster son William married Harriet Lucas believed of the Lucas family of Cecil Co Md [sorry, but don't have any info on the Lucas family]

Had three children, Malinda a Lancaster Born in Middletown New Castle De 1826, Benjamin and St Clair Lancaster Born 1833 & 1834 in Chesapeake City  North side of back creek also called Back creek Hundred. [My William Miller, his father, Abraham, and some brothers owned land in Back Creek Hundred for many years.]

This is what makes me wonder of the connection of Millers of Cecil Co Md are of English Decent [I am almost 100% sure that they were of Scotch Irish descent. I can't find any ties to England....thus far! Who knows! My ancestors are quite elusive, no I never rule anything out completely!] and also believed to have Migrated through Virginia to Washington Co Maryland and reason is St Clair A Lancaster

Son of William Married Margaret A Miller daughter of John W Miller Born in Jefferson Co VA 1805.  His son John Lester Miller had a son that moved to Ohio and of this family I found the grandson that submitted his DNA we all hoped for a match with the Millers of Washington Co [Lots of William Miller's inlaws (the Bradfords) lived in Washington County, Pennsylvania....is that the Washington County you speak of?] but of our surprise we found that this DNA was of English Decent. [isn't this DNA thing revolutionizing genealogy?!!]

Kind of a long way around it but a lot of years to go through, I have land deeds with William Miller and Richard Foard/Ford [I have always wondered if there was any family relationship between William and the Fords, so your connection to Lydia Ford/Foard that you mentioned above is very, very interesting] of a Mill on Elk River I do have that deed also so this explains the Miller’s of Washington co being of same in fact owned very important Mills

Of the area.
 Another connection with Cecil and Washington Co is a lot of the same family migrated as well

Land Record From 1779!

[Note: Sorry, but I couldn't get the image any larger without it going off the screen. You should be able to right click on it and Save Image onto your computer for a more readable version]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

It never ceases to amaze me that we can look at a document that is over 230 years old and see our ancestor's names on it! This is a land record from Cecil County, Maryland, and while the principle parties are Andrew Miller (our William Miller's brother) and Benjamin Pearce, it also mention William and Andrew's  father, our great, great, great... grandfather, Abraham Miller (the Miller information starts about one-third of the way down).

The date is March 1779. The American Revolutionary War is still raging, but our people still live, marry, farm, buy and sell land, and conduct their lives as best they can.

Possibly more amazing is that these records survive! So many documents were destroyed, especially during the Civil War. Though we wish we had more information about our people, we are truly blessed to have several wonderful land papers for our Miller and Bradford ancestors. Some have already been published on this blog, and there will be more to come. Let us be grateful for each and every document that has survived, and for the insight that it gives us into our ancestors lives.

ADDENDUM: Adding the other two pages that are part of this land document. Page 1 is above; pages 2 and 3 are below. Kudos to anyone who wants to transcribe this unusual hand-writing!:

The Enigmatic Rebecca

Picture - Early Elkton


I don't think I would be far off in saying that we all feel a great closeness to our progenitor, Rebecca Bradford Miller, and yet she is one of the persons we know so little about! To my knowledge, she is named in only one semi-primary source - a transcription of Elkton, Cecil County, Maryland marriage licences.

That she was William Miller's wife is also mentioned in a few DAR sources. And we are indebted to her grandson George Washington Allen for listing the basics, birth, marriage & death info, as well as children's names in The Allen Family Record.

But there is precious little information to "flesh out" her life story...except for one nugget contained in an intriguing old email from a Mike Miller (is anyone still in touch with Mike?):

"You will notice the difference in ages of William Miller and his wife [Rebecca Bradford]. I have heard Mother say it was told her, he used to visit the Bradford family when Rebecca was a baby in the cradle and would say he was going to have her for his wife when she grew up, as so he did. -written by Sallie Allen, l904." [if anyone has further details about this story, we would love to hear from you].


From these bits and snatches, I will try to piece together Rebecca's life story in the next few posts. If you have more information about Rebecca, please leave it in the Comments section below or email it to me, and I will include it in these write-up's. I feel a great love for this good lady, and I hope we learn even more about her in the future.

Our Scots-Irish Bradford Line

Picture: County Down, Ireland

[Please forgive my long absence...a move, the holidays, and many other things intervened, but I hope to be back to writing at least a once-a-week post, and you all are invited to contribute, too!]

As descendants of William Miller and his wife, Rebecca Bradford Miller, we have the distinction of descending from two completely different ancestors named Samuel Bradford--one is Rebecca's father, and one is her grandfather on her mother's side..."no relation" according to the Allen Family Record, a quite reliable source we quote from often in this blog.

Rebecca's grandfather (whom we have affectionately dubbed "Red Lion Sam" as he lived in Red Lion Hundred in Newcastle County, Delaware) is proving to be an extremely difficult research subject, and we cannot as yet with certainty say anything about his heritage. Was he Scots-Irish, of English descent, or [be still our hearts] a descendant of The Governor? Only time will tell, we hope!

But it is with near certainty that we can say Rebecca's father was of Scots-Irish origin (see post dated September 1, 2009, entitled "Rebecca's Uncle James Bradford."

While we have not yet identified from which village in Northern Ireland our Bradfords haled, the entry below confirms that persons with this name were part of the migration from Scotland to Ulster:

"A well planned plantation of Ulster began in 1609, involving the introduction to the province of thousands of settlers. These were brought in by adventurers who, in return for title to the land, brought in a specified number of settlers to their estates. One Scottish adventurer, James Hamilton, brought over ten thousand Scots to northwest Down, Scottish names such as Boyd, Fraser, Johnston, Lindsay, Morrison, Patterson and Maxwell are consequently common in Down. English adventurers in Down who brought over English families included Annesleu, Hill and Montgomery. These settlers brought the names Wilson, Johnson, Young, Taylor, Walker, Jackson, Watson, Bradshaw, and Bradford to Ulster." Source: (http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/county/down.html)

For a good general history of the plantations of Northern Ireland, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantations_of_Ireland and http://www.libraryireland.com/ScotchIrishAmerica/I.php

It will be thrilling day when we find the exact village in Ireland that Rebecca's father side came from, and an even more thrilling day if we can trace that line back to their origins in Scotland. Let's all join in the search, and hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later.

*I use the term Scots-Irish as opposed to Scotch-Irish, as it is the preferred term [at least by the Scots themselves!].

"What Do You Mean 'Squirrel Scalps'?!"

According to author, Christopher Knauss, "During the period of the settlement and Revolutionary War, Cecil County developed into a farming community at the head of the bay. The main exports were animal skins, tobacco and other agricultural products, usually shipped from the town ports that developed at strategic locations. Farming was so important to the economy that squirrels and crows became a destructive problem and legislators put a bounty on their head. As money was scarce, citizens were allowed to pay their taxes with squirrels and crows." (from Maritime Cecil County by Christopher Knauss; italics added).

Early records from Cecil County, Maryland show that our ancestors joined in the great squirrel hunt! The following names show up on "Constable George Catto's List of Persons Paid for Squirrel Scalps Burnt in the Year 1761": Abraham Miller, William Miller, James Miller and Andrew Miller (History of Cecil County, Maryland" by George Johnston).*

These old records are actually invaluable, as they indicate that the Miller clan was apparently living in Back Creek Hundred during this era, as they also show up in the list of "Taxables in Back Creek Hundred in 1766," where we see Abraham and Andrew listed, as well as Benjamin with "one slave and one dog", and William with "two dogs."

This is also the era that Abraham worked as an Overseer of Roads.

The Millers show up even earlier in "The "Taxable Persons in Cecil County in 1752" list.

And if you guys are up there watching, that wasn't me feeding those varmints this afternoon...that was just someone that looked like me!

[* Note: My brother Bill and I once spent an entire day in the largest genealogical library in the world in Salt Lake City. We were there for hours, poring over endless records looking for any tidbit of information about William Miller. At that point in time, we had almost no information about him. Near the end of our time there, Bill found the above record. I'll never forget how disgruntled he was that for all our efforts, the best we could turn up was a record indicating that our ancestors were squirrel scalpers!]

West Nottingham Cemetery is a Presbyterian graveyard in Cecil County, Maryland. This is a transcript of headstones from that old cemetery, which is located in Colora, a small town west of Elkton. Hopefully future research will reveal whether or not this Samuel and Mary Miller are related to our Miller's.

However, it is certain that Rebecca Bradford Miller's father, Samuel Bradford, was of Scotch-Irish background, and thus descended from a people with strong Presbyterian roots.

Whether or not Rebecca's husband, William Miller, descended from such roots remains to be seen.

It is also noted that the birth year of this Samuel Miller (1735) is close to the birth year of our William Miller (1732).

Abraham - Overseer of Roads

I have often wondered exactly what the job of "Overseer of Roads" entailed. We know that Abraham Miller, our William's father, and others in the family worked as overseers in Cecil County, Maryland for several years in the 1700's. Here is a job description from that era:

AND BE IT ENACTED, That it shall and may be lawful for the several and respective overseers of the said roads, and they are hereby authorised and empowered, as often as need shall require, to dig, take and remove, any stones, gravel, or earth of firm quality, which may be found on any land adjoining the roads for which the same may be necessary, and to employ the same in the repairing of the said. roads ; and for the making or repairing of bridges over the heads of rivers, creeks, branches, swamps, or other low and miry places, through and over which the said roads may pass, to cut down, or cause to be cut down, any tree or trees growing on any of the next adjacent lands to such places where bridges may be necessary as aforesaid, and the same trees to maul and carry away from off such lands, and to apply the same to the making or repairing of the said bridges; provided, that it shall be the duty of each and every overseer aforesaid to render a true account, (certified under their hands and seals respectively,) of all and singular such tree or trees by them cut down and taken for the purpose aforesaid, with a description of the size and quality of such tree or trees, together with their estimation of the value thereof, to the owner, tenant or overseer, of the lands from whence the same shall have been taken, and to return a duplicate of such account, on oath, to the next levy court of the county, in order that the justices of said court may be enabled to estimate the real value thereof, to be allowed or paid to such owner or owners in such manner as said justices shall appoint and direct...the said overseers shall have power, and they are hereby authorised and required, to call upon all and singular the free able bodied male inhabitants of their respective limits, above the age of eighteen years and under the age of fifty years, and upon all and singular the able bodied male slaves residing therein, above the age of eighteen years and tinder the age of fifty years, to labour and assist in clearing, amending, improving and repairing, the several and respective roads aforesaid, and to require such and so many of the said persons as they shall from time to time deem necessary, to assemble at such place within their respective limits as the said overseers shall severally appoint, with sufficient implements of labour, and thereupon to proceed in the execution of such work and labour upon the said roads, for the improvement and repair thereof, as the respective overseers shall order and direct; and the said overseers shall also have power to hire and employ carts and teams for the carrying and removing all such stones, dirt, gravel and timber, as may be deemed requisite for repairing and completing the said,roads and bridges, and the expence of such carts and teams shall be levied upon the county" [sic] (Maryland State Archives, Vo. 558, p. 41 - http://aomol.net/000001/000558/html/am558--41.html)

[picture from awesomeamerica.com/maryland/]

Can You Just Imagine?

Below is a land record (double click on it to enlarge) for William's father, Abraham Miller from 1749!! Wouldn't you give anything to know what the land around Elkton looked like back then! How did our ancestors live, dress and travel? What did they eat? We will never know for sure, but this entry from another famliy history site (not related) gives us a flavor of what it might have been like:

Life on the eastern shore in the late 1700s was very basic, as described by a writer in the Chestertown Transcript:
Farm implements were of the rudest kind. We used wooden plows, with an old saw for the land side, and the mold board covered with a gar skin. Corn was worked with the fluke harrow and hoe. ... The smaller products of the farm were taken to town every Wednesday and Saturday, where they were exposed in the market for sale until 9 A.M. If not disposed of by that time, they were exchanged with the merchants for their goods. Clothing was of the simplest kind, and very often homespun, though there were at the time several woolen mills in Kent. Shoes were made at the farmers' houses by an itinerant shoemaker, whose avocation was called by the euphonious name of "whipping the cat." Roads were generally very poor, and laid out without regard to straight lines. If a mudhole was in the middle of the road, they drove around it and made a new road. Horseback was the favorite method of traveling. On Sunday the families would generally pile in an ox-cart and go that way to church. There were a few gigs, but they, like coaches, were costly, and were only used by the very rich.There were several kinds of amusements indulged in by the men, one of which was horse racing. The distance run was generally a quarter of a mile, and the stakes a gallon of whiskey. The very best whiskey cost fifty cents per gallon. Husking matches were common in the winter. The husking was generally done by the negroes, while the white folks had a good time in the house. The huskers were always provided with a good supper; plenty of roast pig, corn-bread and whiskey. Once a year there was a day appointed for a squirrel hunt, generally in June, when the young squirrels were tender and eating fit for the Gods," (picture and article from VanderFord Family.com).

This land deal involved Abraham buying a large tract of land near the Head of the Elk [River]. He was probably around 39 years old. He and his wife, Rosannah (or Susannah?) would have had several children by now (we know William was born in 1732). They seem to have been fairly well situated financially in order to buy this much land. They had been living in NewCastle County, Delaware [why does the deed say "in the Territories of Pensylvania [sic]?...we'll leave that question for another posting], and were now moving to Cecil County, Maryland, though this was a move of only 5 or 10 miles. Someday perhaps one of our members will travel to this part of the country, pinpoint this area and take pictures, though we can be sure it won't look even remotely the same! We are lucky to now have these land records at our fingertips to help give us a more complete picture of what our ancestors' lives were really like.