X00223 John Miller of Markdale

The Miller family creates all sort of mysteries, partly because they were living in pre-confederation Ontario, where it is tough to find records, but also because they have a very common last name.

One of the mysteries is trying to find anything about John Miller, son of George Miller. According to Miller family lore, George and Margaret had two sons, William and John, both born between 1833 and 1835. They may have been twins.

The only sources that I've found to prove his existence and link him with the rest of the family are an appearance in an 1865/1866 Owen Sound Directory and the 1881 census. Unfortunately, the 1851 census for the section of Toronto Township where the Miller family would have been living has not survived, and he was not living with the family in 1861. There are other records I’ve found with a John Miller in it, but since it is such a common name and there were more than one John Millers living in the area at the time it’s hard to confirm if they are the same person or not.

A marriage record might be able to identify him as it might give names of parents. But I have not been able to find a marriage record for him and he doesn't appear to be married in 1881. I've looked into death records, but I haven't found anything definite.

One consideration is a John Miller who died in Markdale, Grey County in 1911, aged 77 (i.e. born about 1834).

The age is right, the location is certainly a possibility, but there's not much else to go on. So I had a look in the Markdale Standard online for 1911 to see if there was an obituary. I checked all of the papers for the month of March 1911 and found nothing. Not even a mention. I even checked the Flesherton Advance to see if they had picked it up. Still nothing.

It seems unusual that there would be nothing in the newspaper about this, because Markdale just isn’t that big. If there was nothing reported, I’m inclined to think that perhaps this isn’t the John Miller that I am looking for. If it were, I would think that there would have been at least a mention about family members coming in from out of town, but there’s nothing. My take is that it’s likely that this John Miller didn’t have much in the way of family and wasn’t really known within the town.