I didn’t want to look.  There are just some things that you know will take time and I admit that I didn’t want to do it.  I’ve had this photo since I’ve started scanning family photos.  This is Jeremiah Miller father to our Isaac Geoff Miller.  On first glance he looks like so many in our family.  His face is at once familiar to me.  I see that kindness in his eyes that I have seen daily through my fathers eyes.  I see the humor in his mouth that I can see in my brothers mouths.  Through his wife Rhoda we can trace our ancestors to the Revolutionary War.  And perhaps that is why I didn’t want to look, because I felt that I would find nothing interesting about Jeremiah.  

Jeremiah was born March 16, 1826 in Allegany County, Maryland to Captain John Jacob Miller and Catherine Jacobs Bungard.  He had 5 siblings born to John and Catherine.  His mother died when he was 17 and his father remarried to a woman named Nancy Michaels and they had two children before John’s death in 1862.

When Jeremiah was 19 he married Rhoda Jacobs on September 15, 1848 in Allegany County, Maryland.  Allegany is situated in the pan-handle part of Maryland situated between Pennsylvania to the North and West Virginia to the South.  At the time of the 2020 census the population of Allegany was over 68 thousand individuals. Jeremiah and Rhoda started their married life there in Allegany County near family.   All in all I counted 10 children being born to Jeremiah and Rhoda.  

All in all I counted 10 children born to Jeremiah and Rhoda

     * Jane - 1848 - Records show a daughter Jane was born in 1848, but no date is given for her birthday.  At the time of the 1850 census the Millers listed Jane as being one year old so her birthdate could be in 1849.   She’s listed in the 1850 census, but not on the 1860 census.  
	* James - born December 13, 1849 died August 26, 1862 at age 12 - I believe he was born in 1850 instead of 1849.  
	* Mandana - born October 5, 1852 died June 7, 1911 at age 58 in Elgin, Illinois

Mandana was the last of their children to be born in Maryland.  Between her birth in 1852 and her sisters Mary birth in 1855 the family moved to Ogle County, Illinois.  

	* Mary - born December 14, 1855 was listed as deaf in the  1870 census.  She died at age 87 in Rockford, Illinois.  
	* Lorenzo - born April 8, 1856 died July 23, 1925 in Walnut, Illinois at age 69.
	* Rachael - born March 10, 1859 died September 6, 1898 at age 39
	* Jesse born July 23, 1864, died June 24, 1876 at age 12. 

On September 21, 1864 Jeremiah enlisted in the F Company of the 178th Infantry Regiment in Ohio of the Union Army as a Private.  His date of discharge was May 31, 1865 at Camp Dennison in Ohio.  

	* Isaac - our Isaac was born October 25, 1866 and died December 27, 1949 at age 83.  
	* Libby - born February 6, 1869 and died May 31, 1876 at age 7.  
	* Infant Son - a final son of Jeremiah and Rhoda’s was born and died on October 10, 1871

Jeremiah and Rhoda continued to live and farm in Ogle County, Illinois until Jeremiah’s death on October 5, 1903.  I found Rhoda listed living with Isaac’s family in the 1910 census.  I just love the census, you can get so much information from it.  

While I started out looking at Jeremiah I didn’t know how full of treasure his life was.  May we all lead lives a full as Jeremiah’s.