Our Miller-Esterline Connections

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down and discussing our Esterline heritage with a 2nd Cousin who I met on 23andMe. When we finally did meet in person she brought some photos along with her. She has generously allowed me to copy those photographs and share them here.
The first topic that I would like to address is her Great Grandmother, my Great Grand Aunt one Rachel Jane ESTERLINE, daughter of John Henry ESTERLINE and Mary Ann MILLER.
Rachel was born 22 September, 1861 in Rockport, Spencer County, Indiana. She married one Allan HARRIS.
My cousin Rachel (which by the way seems to have been a very popular name in our family ;-) ) and I had a lengthy discussion and one of the subjects she brought up was that little was known about our Grandmother Mary Ann MILLER-ESTERLINE. She stated that she often wondered if perhaps she was Native American due to the fact that her daughter Rachel Jane`s complexion was dark. I shared with her that it could quite possibly be from the sun, perhaps she worked out doors a lot and just had a tan. But she was adamant about it and she shared the photo with me that I have posted above.  In the photo is Rachel and her husband. Although I am reluctant to base things like Ethnicity on Phenotypes alone. I will say that after having viewed the photograph with her standing next to her husband, who you can clearly tell was European, it does appear as though Rachel may have had some other Ethinicity aside from European. She appears to me as though she may have had some African blood in her, one has to wonder if she may have been Melungeon. Now, I am basing that previous statement on how she appears within this photograph alone. In comparing her photograph to that of my great grandfather, her brother John Wesley ESTERLINE as is pictured below it would appear that perhaps Rachel spent an inordinate amount
of time in the Sun as he very clearly does not appear to have anything other than European heritage based on his phenotype alone. I frequent a lot of Genealogy forums and the general consensus there is one should never base Ethinicty on how a person looks. I would for the most part be inclined to agree. There are many explanations for why a person would appear to be dark complected within a photograph, one must take into account things like the lighting at the time, was there anything around that could have cast a shadow on them? Like I stated previously, just being out in the sun for any length of time could have caused her skin to turn dark.
Now, with all that being said, am I specifically stating that there is no way she could have any Native Heritage within her? Absolutely not! But we must look at what we do know about Grandmother Mary Ann MILLER before we come to any conclusions here. Her parents are thought to be one Michael MILLER and Mary Polly YOUNG.  The Miller lines goes right back to Germany within the next generation so it is highly unlikely any other Ethnicity would have came from his direct line.  So that leaves us with investigating the YOUNG line a bit more closely. I am going to do precisely that in part 2 of this post to come in the near future! Stay tuned!

Note: At this point in time I am unsure as to whether the parents of Mary Polly MILLER are in fact Michael MILLER and Mary Polly YOUNG. I am in the process of obtaining as much information as I can to either verify or dispute that. I have an email into another Esterline researcher whose research I deem reliable, he has listed her father to have been Michael but uncertain as to the wifes maiden name. I will update this post when I have either verified or disproved the parentage.