One Miller family in the Germanna community was that of Henry and Susanna Miller, who moved to Virginia from Pennsylvania after several of their children were born. This was not long before the Revolution. According to family tradition, Henry was a tanner.
More is known about the origins of Susanna than of Henry. She came to Philadelphia, bringing with her a "birth certificate", which was preserved within the family. The certificate states she was born 21 Feb 1731, the daughter of Michael Sibler, citizen and master carpenter, and of Barbara, both of whom were Evangelic Lutheran parents in legal and honest wedlock. Susanna was born at Auerbach and the birth was recorded at nearby Langensteinbach (both in Baden). The certificate was dated 7 Apr 1752, which broadly fixes her arrival date.
The children of Henry and Susanna are recorded in the Hebron Church Register, but there are problems with the data. The only sponsors who are clearly Germanna people start with the sponsors of the twins, George and Margaret, in 1772. Apparently, some of the older children, who were born in Pennsylvania, were baptized in Pennsylvania. One of the later children, Sophia, is stated to have been baptized in Lancaster. [Most likely in the Cocalico townships in the northern part of the county-JVB.] Thus they were maintaining their ties to Pennsylvania.
Henry Miller purchased land in Culpeper Co. (later Madison Co.), on 16 Apr 1776, and on 7 Sep 1776 he added 50 more acres. This land is described as being on the Robinson River, near the Hebron Church. In 1780, he bought 1536 acres at the foot of Peaked Mountain in what later became Rappahannock County. He died at his home in Madison Co., in June of 1801. His will had been witnessed in 1796, and it was settled in November of 1807. Of his twelve children (there are only eleven in the Register), nine were still living, as was his wife, Susanna.
The information being presented here comes from Louise Keyser Cockey in an article in Beyond Germanna (vol. 1, n. 5). She is the co-author of "History of the Descendants of Charles Keyser and Henry Miller." About 220 pages are devoted to the descendants of Henry Miller.
Henry is said to have had a brother George who, with his wife Mary Margaret, has three children recorded in the Register. Again, these children were probably baptized in Pennsylvania. One reason for the unusual baptisms recorded for the children of Henry and George is that when the Register was rewritten in 1775, it was written, not as a history of what had been done at Hebron, but as a description of the current situation in 1775. Thus the baptism of the first Miller children was entered, not because they had been baptized at Hebron, but because the rewritten Register was telling the new pastor that the children had been baptized.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.