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A big thank you to all the contributors with the explanation of the occupation of a GARTHAR.

Burton is a predominantly agricultural area and I suspect that there would have been numerous cattle herds ("Mary call the Cattle Home" springs immerdiately to mind), and probably few sheep if any.  It is possible that there could have been a fish enclosure nearby on the River Dee, as the area was not extensively silted as today, but I would conclude that my distant maternal relative was most probably a cattle herdsman.

On the Cheshire Parish Register Database full baptism record listing for Timothy Gregory at Burton in 1723, the occupation of the father Timothy Gregory is listed as GARTHAR.

What is a GARTHAR?

Is it somehow a phonetic spelling variation of CARTER, as in someone who carts goods to/from farms to other places, or is a garthar something else entirely?

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can offer.

I have checked back on my notes made in 1980 whilst "interviewing" my late great Uncle Fred about the MILLER family.

It almost definitely appears that I made a mistake saying that his wife was named Jane, and it was John Miller's
sister Jane Ann Miller who, in fact, also emigrated to New Zealand.

Now John Milled was cremated August 3rd, 1948 at Karori Crematorium.

As there is no mention of his wife in The Dominion death announcement, it seems reasonable to conclude that his wife had already died.   This is also supported by the fact that he died in Hutt Hospital, in the same city where his daughter was living.  If he had still been living in Newtown, he would surely have been in a Wellington hospital.

Making the assumption that his wife was also cremated at Karori Crematorium, we find a number of entries for female Millers beween 1938 when his wife appeared with him in the Golden Wedding Anniversary article and his cremation on August 3rd, 1948.

As his wife would have been at least 16 years when she married John in 1888 (1938 - 50), her latest birth year must have been 1872, which leaves three entries.

MILLER    ELIZA JANE            70    13-10-1942    Crematorium
MILLER    EDITH ANSTRUTHER    76    15-01-1946    Crematorium
MILLER    SARAH ANN            78    11-01-1947    Crematorium

The FreeBMD search facility only finds a marriage match between 1886 and 1890 for

Miller            John     Carlisle    10b   627
Watson    Sarah Ann Carlisle    10b 627

in September 1888.  As this marriage was in Carlisle, I have my doubts if it is a good match.

So does the Wellington Electoral Roll give any match on a John and Saran Ann Miller in Newtown in 1938 or later in Lower Hutt in 1946?

And is there any mention of a death notice in The Dominion for Sarah Ann Miller's death on January 9th, 1947
mentioning her husband as John Miller?

Lucy -- Thank you immensely from that extremely helpful and useful information!!!

I am indebtted to you for doing the necessary searching.

It does seem rather strange that there is no electoral roll information for John and Jane Miller.

I wonder if his wife was indeed named Jane, but this was the name that my great uncle once gave me in a reference to
"John and Jane Miller went off to New Zealand".

But if John and Jane never took out New Zealand citizenship, as I suspect he might not have, because of his "loyalty to
England", he presumably would not have then been listed.