Our Miller's of Lifford, County Donegal, Ireland

RIVER COTTAGES, LIFFORD
(Source: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
~fantham/lifford_hall.jpg)

Below is a copy of an actual 1706 document held at the Public Records Office of Ireland (PRONI) and graciously made available through the Ulster Ancestry organization.  

This letter actually lists David Miller, the grandfather of our William Miller and father of Abraham Miller. David was living in Newcastle County, Pennsylvania [later Delaware], and apparently he, his family and friends were appealing to Presbytery in Scotland, their "mother church," for aid in building their congregation there in America.

This is a critical document because it contains the "motherlode" of all genealogical research--the identification of where our immigrant ancestors came from! We read that "...the greatest number of us [were] born and educated in (sic) Irland under the ministry of one William Traill, a (sic) presbiterian minister formerly of Lifford, Co. Donegal [Ireland]..." We not only learn that the Miller's were from Northern Ireland, thus being part of the Scots-Irish Ulster plantations, but we can actually pinpoint the town they hailed from in Ireland! Jackpot!

As you examine the signers of this letter, you find not only the name of our ancestor, David Miller, but also his brother, Alexander Miller, as well as Abraham Emott (a brother-in-law of David and Alexander, having married their sister, Jane), and Abraham's brother, John Emott.

So our Miller ancestors came from Lifford in County Donegal, Northern Ireland! For more information about their connection to the Reverend Traill, enter "Traill" in the search box of this blog.

Here is a youtube video that will give you a taste of what this village looks like now! Wouldn't it be lovely to be able to visit there in person? Someday... (it might not come through as a hot link, so you''ll have to cut and paste this website address into your server's address box):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-0OjxxnID8

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