Biographie Miller Moses-Lewis-Isiac

Origins of Jerry and Harriett Miller

It is now been three years of research to find the.  Many facts and citations showed their movement in the United States, children, enlistment in the Union Army, and born in Canada, but until now the original sir name was hidden behind a veil.  The original name has been discovered!  Through the use of my DNA and my fathers the breakthrough discovery has been made.

            Jerry and Harriett have long since passed away and their DNA is not on file, but their descendants DNA lives on.  It was an individual who’s DNA showed a 98 percent match to my father that was the missing link needed.  Upon research of this individual’s family tree it was discovered that his Miller name changed from Meloche dit Livernois in the mid 1800’s.  Could this be the missing link?  It did not take very long to discover the birth, baptism, and marriage records of both Louis Cheri Meloche dit Livernois and Henriette Dubois in Canada.

            Drilling down deeper revealed their children names and birth dates lined up with those in my tree.  The French baptism names were slightly different then the Anglo American names they where known as.  The family being born and baptized as Roman Catholics would answer the name difference.   To fully understand how the French named children I would suggest reading the article written by “Heather Devine” University of Calgary.  http://people.ucalgary.ca/~hdevine/naming.htm Heather has described how the Catholic Priest determined the first name, usually a Saints name prior to a second name.  Many of the Miller Children started with the name Marie for girls and Louis for boys.  Louis was the name of the King of France and by decree had ordered that boys be named Louis to show support for the King. 

            The name Meloche is the sir name, however the name Livernois is also the sir name.  It was common for the French to have two sir names.  The first sir name is the original sir name.  The second was used to distinguish a branch of the original family.  Livernois when translated means, “surrounding countryside.”  My Meloche family was the branch from the country.

            The big question is, why did the name change to Miller and when?  From all the research I have determined that Cheri was a farmer and also worked on sawmills.  In 1860 the Canadian, New York boarder was an open boarder for the most part.  Jerry and Harriet traveled between the boarders at will.  Evidence of children being born and baptized shows this movement.  The Union Army recruited French men to enlist during the Civil War.  Americans who were summons to report for duty could send someone else in their place, thus not requiring them to serve.  This usually required a bounty of about $402 paid to the proxy soldier.  There is no evidence of why Jerry enlisted, but he could very well have served as a proxy soldier in the place of one of the mill owners or their sons.

            The sir name changes to Miller!  The Union Army routinely changed French enlistee’s names to an Anglo name for ease of pronunciations.  Cheri, when spoken in a thick French accent sounds like Jerry to an English speaking person. His occupation at the time of enlistment was a mill laborer.  My theory is the Union Army changed his name to Jerry Miller upon enlistment and this name has carried down to identify the sir name I was given at birth.

Duane A. Miller