Return to the Land

captivity. When she was released she married a John Miller and moved to Carolina. 23 An attempt to trace this Miller involved looking into North Carolina records. A review of the Moravian Archives in Winston-Salem proved unproductive. The John Miller of Dunkard ’ s Bottom is thought to have given up his holdings in Virginia and migrated to Anson County, North Carolina, according to Johnson in the New River Early Settlements. She states that this John Miller was located there in 1762. 24 In speaking with the clerk of the court in Wadesboro, county seat of Anson County, I learned that no Millers were in the records of that period. Mills was the closest name found. Wadesboro had retained some records from 1750-1780 after the courthouse burned. Due to a lack of early birth records and marriage records a search for the common name John proved overwhelming. For example, in 1785 there is listed a marriage in Botetourt of John Miller and Sara Corten but no connection could be established. Hopefully, family records or documents will surface which will give us a direct and verifiable link to John Miller and his transactions and travels will no longer contain gaps and dead ends. Grandfather’s story is the best record that we currently have.

23 Kegley’s Virginia Frontier , p. 195. 24 The New River Early Settlements , p. 133.

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